Barrowford 15-02-2026 Leader Gill

It was a case of ‘will we, won’t we?’ as 3 people contacted me before 9 to ask what the weather was like, decide not to walk, and be unable to walk (Get well soon, Sheila), but in the event, the 6 inches (!) of snow in Bury/Rossendale were not in evidence in the green fields of Barrowford, and 13 turned up in the muddy car park to commence our scant 6 miler.

We’d to move away from the car park for our start photo by the canal, and for me to give an overview of the walk (fairly flat, muddy, and some pinch points to note). It’s noisy in the car park due to proximity to the motorway and it sounded as though that place I can’t mention would have been busy on a potentially wet morning.

It wasn’t long before we met mud and squelchy conditions once we’d left the canal and headed to Higherford. We crossed the road, negotiating our first pinch point well, and then headed into some rather lovely woods which will be delightful in a couple of weeks when the daffodils flower. From there it was over towards the Cross Gaits pub, sadly closed, and back on ourselves past some alpacas at Great Stonedge Farm to some very cute Valais Blacknose sheep.

The animal lovers among us oohed and aahed over the sheep, and others made the most of the opportunity to don waterproofs, Tom insisting that him doing so would stop the rain (it didn’t).  Once more suitably attired, we continued through some washing lines where the taller ones among us had to avoid being decapitated. A bit (!) more mud led us back towards the road and our second pinch point, again safely negotiated. 

Up the slight incline, along side a wall, through a farm yard and then it was the horse field. What a mess! The recent wet weather meant there weren’t many solid areas, so we were relieved to reach the gate out of the field and onto more solid ground. A while before, John had asked if we could stop for lunch, and in a field with a rather pleasant view, the rain stopped, and we had lunch at 1215.  We set off again at about 12.30 as the rain restarted with a bit more vengeance and I was seriously considering cutting the walk short. Unpleasant to sit in, but not that bad to walk in, we continued to our third, and final, pinch point – again, negotiated beautifully, and the rain stopped again.

Steve’s secateurs were brought into use – thank you, Steve – on an awkward down and up, and then we plodged through some more mud before a boot washing opportunity arose.  I risked my reputation by saying there’d be no more mud (and there wasn’t much more and what there was was almost avoidable), as we passed Slipper Hill reservoir, the west tunnel entrance on the canal, and followed the towpath back to the cars. 

We were the lucky 13.  It started raining a bit as we gained the cars, and there was a real downpour as we were driving home. We’d had the best of the day and as usual, a lovely walk with friends.

We didn’t have the RR camera (and we wouldn’t have known how to upload photos even if we had) so Sue and I took the photos.  Thank you, Sue – there wouldn’t have been many if you hadn’t taken some. Glyn did a stalwart job of back-marking – thank you, Glyn.

 

5.8 miles, and a walk to repeat in better weather. 

Write up: Gill

Slideshow below, but if you want to see a static view of the pics all in one go, then click here