East Colne Way 16-08-2026 Leader Gill

13 lovely Ramblers met at Ball Grove Park, the start point for walking the East Colne Way with an extra twiddle. After all our glorious and frequently too hot weather of recent weeks, it was quite pleasant to have a cool start to the day, but people were a little surprised that I was setting off in shorts and a sleeveless blouse.

Tom and I had discovered a different route out of the park, so we followed that to strike north (aka up) to the road and soon gained the ‘green lungs’ of Colne, to follow the footpath markers of East Colne Way (and sometimes Colne Boundary Walk). We had to squeeeeze though the gate to access The Rough, and then we had another as we turned through a beautiful gap in trees near Lower Clough and through an aptly named squeeze stile.

We dropped slightly downhill to the rather hidden but well protected Lower Clough, oohing and aahing at the attractive calves, and commenting on the low level of the reservoir we could see. Lower Foulridge Res didn’t disappoint in bird life, despite the lack of water – Sue and Chris heard oyster catchers, we saw a cormorant stretching in the sun (probably drying its wings after the very short dribble of rain we’d just had), and a heron which took off just as the cormorant folded its wings. I think nearly everyone had removed items of clothing by this time. They should have followed my lead from the start.

A bit more downhill took us to Higher Clough and then Moss House Farm, where I think I heard the first call for lunch. Surely not! We’d to walk a bit further – getting our steps in first! – to cross Colne golf course, and then past Far Salter Syke and up Long Lane. “You can have lunch after we’ve been up this hill!”. We were now on the twiddle, which Arnold recognised as the Winewall Circular route.

Finally, we stopped for lunch in a very pleasant spot with stones, and raised seating, just after Flass Farm. It was only 12.30. Not a bad time for lunch and Judy and Arnold agreed it was 4.2 miles done.

Setting off in probably the best weather of the day thus far, we were in more wild and woolly terrain as we gained the Pendle Way and followed that down to Laneshawbridge. From Carrier’s Row we came off the Winewall route and just meandered alongside Colne Water back to the cafe near the car park where we arrived at about 1.50. Quite a few of us stopped for a brew and cake – we had definitely got our steps in by this point.

We’d done 6.1 miles and just 581 ft of ascent (and 593 ft of descent – Arnold can explain the discrepancy) so it wasn’t a hard walk, but there were some rather tricky wall stiles and we had to watch our feet on the Pendle Way section (after we heard a green woodpecker) down to Laneshawbridge which slowed us down.

I think we all enjoyed the walk and the fabulous, caring, company.

The last time I led this walk (or a version of it) was April 2024, so some of you have brilliant memories.

Roy mentioned the devil spitting on blackberries to me soon after the start of the walk. Obviously, I had to research this statement. Apparently, you shouldn’t pick blackberries after Old Michaelmas Day (10^th October – or you can use 29^th Sept if you prefer) because the devil has spit on them – so you’re ok to pick for a bit. By the way, do you know there are more than 300 microvarieties of blackberry in the UK and it isn’t unusual to find up to 20 variations within a mile radius? No wonder we have to keep tasting them to find the sweetest and least pippy!

Can you remember the Norwegian for dandruff?

 

Thank you to Judy for taking the lovely pictures and to Sue for doing an excellent job of back marking. 

Write up Gill

 

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