Present: Members: Lorna Marsland, Iain McCallum, Phil Ramsbottom, Dave Wiley, Chris Thickett, Joe Flynn, Christine Beeston, Al Metelko, Trish Cranston, Nils Elgar, Keith Williams (meet leader)

The first day of Spring and, defying the rather gloomy weather forecast, the sun shone out of a peerless blue sky. This was never going to be a test of roughty-toughty mountaineering grit and skill; rather, a gentle upland walk to shake out the cobwebs and an opportunity to catch up with friends not seen much over the winter. And so it proved – more about talk than walk. The ground having largely dried, the walking was on auto-pilot leaving us free to swap yarns, make plans and, in my case, find out why Open Reach was taking months to get Fibre To (my) Premises (thanks, Dave).  

Chris and Iain opted for the direttissima route to Great Hill while the rest of us headed down to Belmont and the medieval road between Preston and Bolton. Then by the upgraded path to Great Hill where we met the only serious wetness and a mate of Derek Seddon’s from the Peak and Northern who was keen to get us mending signposts and repairing footpaths. The return between the woods and the waters of Anglezarke reservoir was pure delight in the now warm sunshine. All that was needed was afternoon tea. How are the mighty fallen...

Start: 9.45am for 10.00am at Anglezarke Reservoir car park (SD 619161 – not visible from the public road running alongside the SE corner of Anglezarke Reservoir but marked with car park symbol on both 1:25K and 1:50K OS maps).

Suggested routes

Short version: Hordern Pasture, Spitler’s Edge, Great Hill, White Coppice. Return alongside Anglezarke Reservoir.
Distance: 8 miles.
Ascent: 1200 feet

Longer version: Hordern Pasture, Belmont, Higher Pasture Farm, Witton Weaver’s Way to Hollinshead Hall, Piccadilly, Great Hill. Return as short version.
Distance: 12 miles.
Ascent: 1700 feet.