Members present: Colin Maddison, Bob Kelly, Dave Wylie, Brian Taylor, Keith Williams, Christine Beeston, Lorna Marsland, Al Metelko, Trish Cranston, Phil Ramsbottom

Once the party was assembled on a cool dull day the rain decided that it was time to put in an appearance, it wasn't very heavy but with the cool West wind it did not feel too pleasant. But the party was made of sterner stuff so of we set.

The path across the moor to Darwen tower was mercifully dry by its own boggy standards which allowed us to reach the Jubilee Tower without any mishap, here we paused to refuel and put on the full waterproofs which were starting to be needed.

The route took us down past a couple of reservoirs to the Belmont road where Keith was able to point out the site of an attempt to find oil in the area, now only visible as a muddy pool which is home to four geese.

At this point the rain had eased and I was tempted to remove my waterproofs, but luckily common sense prevailed and I waited a while. Within minutes we were walking across Withnell Moor into the face of driving drizzle which sadly continued for the rest of the walk.

We did find a ruined barn to give us some shelter from the weather but reaching it was another thing as it was defended from sheep and wet walkers by a stout barbed wire fence. Some people managed it with a struggle, some stayed outside and Dave Wylie just stepped over without any trouble.

After lunch the obvious choice was to get back to the cars as quickly as possible so the planned route was abandoned in favour of a much better path leading first to the Drinkwaters ruin, then over Great Hill and back to the cars.

A very good turnout considering the annoyingly accurate weather forecast, many thanks to all who came, I'll try for better weather next time.

N.B. This is a SUNDAY walk – not Saturday as previously advertised.

Please join me for a walk around the Belmont/Winter Hill area.

Start at SD666192 which is a small car park to the North of Belmont reservoir. It will be found by turning right (travelling North) off the A675 Belmont road just under two miles after the reservoir.

Meet at 09:45 for a 10:00 start.

The route will be Darwen Moor, Darwen Tower (Jubilee Tower on map) Earnsdale Reservoir Roddlesworth Reservoir, cross A675 then North of Withnell Moor to ruin at SD633208. It gets complicated from there (especially under last weeks snow) but eventually we should find the way across Wheelton Moor before following the path leading towards White Coppice, we then leave this to climb up to Great Hill. Just after dropping off from the summit there is a good (mostly anyway) path leading back to the cars.

This comes out at about 11miles, however if the weather is good and the party is interested I can find an extra loop which would add another 3-4 miles on.