Tottington 17-05-2026 – leader Glyn Beck

On what looked to be a wet and dry day, 8 brave Ramblers turned up for the walk. Some of us had full waterproofs on, whilst some thought they would take their chances. It turned out that there was only one rain burst lasting about 15 minutes, then the rest of the walk was dry.

As we set off, I said to the group to be on the look out for a key. So, we headed from the cars to the Kirklees Trail which we got to down a path Roy hadn’t been along before, then we headed back up towards Greenmount on the trail. A tree with white flower buds caught the eye of the walkers with that kind of interest over the side of a bridge we were walking over. Soon we got to a crossroads (paths) where we turned towards Holly Mount. I decided it would be in the interest of the group to have a small breather, not that anyone needed one as we here only 10 minutes into the walk. But to give people a chance to spot the forementioned key, which Sue immediately did.

It was then onwards to cross and walk along Holcombe Road before turning right up to Holly Mount School, formerly a Convent, on reaching the school we turned right again to Greenmount Golf Club. Here we took a path to the left to take us up to the outskirts of Hawkshaw, where we climbed a stile onto Bolton Road and the road works that meant us having to walk along the road until we could turn into Spen Leach Lane. We followed the old lane to avoid the traffic only to find the local farmer had tipped a couple of piles of manure. As we joined the main lane again we came to a stile on the right side of the road which we climbed over, it was then down to another stile before a slight incline to another stile to take us through Dandy Hall and onto pass Hollingrove Farm and eventually down into Redisher Woods where lunch was taken.

After lunch it was down towards Holcombe Brook. Passing a board with the history of the land that the new houses now stand on, we continued to the Hare & Hounds pub, where we crossed the road and continued walking down Woodhey road. Soon we were walking through a small valley with the birds tweeting and the sound of the water trickling down the bottom of the valley.  Eventually we arrived on Robin Road ,which took us into Summerseat and on to Higher Summerseat and onto Hazel Hall Lane which we followed to Longsight Road, which we crossed to take us through another field to cross a small bridge, which took us into another field with two small white Bullocks watching us pass by. It was then across Brandlesholme Road and slightly along it to bring us onto Shepherd Street and to Tower Farm, wjere we turned left by the front so that we could turn right to pass some reservoirs before passing under the bridge we had walked over at the beginning of the walk. From here it was a short walk up Mill street to bring us back to the cars.

The total distance was exactly 6 miles with an ascent of 321Feet

Write up Glyn Beck, photos Sue.

Thanks to Arnold for putting this report and pictures onto the web site.

If you wish to see a static view of the pics all in one go, then click here.

Continuously running slideshow below – you can see it full screen by clicking in top left of picture.