Pennine Way, part three

Thursday 22nd September 2011

Millstone and Blackstone Edges 

With good weather dawning I left Manchester where I had been staying and caught a train back to Marsden where I had left the Pennine Way the day before. When I reached the industrial town I set off back up the hillside onto Marsden Moor  and re-joined the Pennine Way not far from the Standedge Cutting with the A62 road at the bottom. After dropping to the western end of the cutting I crossed the road and leaving the Peak District behind I struck off across the moors of Standedge until I reached the trig point and rocks of Millstone Edge. These were great fun and the views towards the urban sprawl of Manchester were amazing, despite a strong, cold wind. The edge was reminiscent of Curbar Edge in the Peak District, maybe not as steep, but still prompted me to do a good deal of jumping about from rock to rock, and fortunately there were not too many people around to see me acting like a prat. 

Moving on from there I walked across wide open moors with no distinguishing features and nothing with which to remember the passing miles. The quiet A640 road was crossed and the trig point on White Hill was passed before I reached a cairn on the nearby Green Hole Hill where I stopped for lunch crouched behind the cairn. The cairn was just big enough to provide me with shelter from the wind, but it didn’t prevent the annoying drone of a motorway a mile away rumbling away in the background. Getting up after lunch I passed a radio mast and crossed the busy M62 motorway on a wind-swept bridge. The M62 has the highest point on the motorway network right at the point where the Pennine Way crosses it and the wind funnelling through the cutting was severe, but the noise from the heavy traffic was just as bad so I was glad when I finally reached the other side of the bridge. Another short walk beyond took me to another wonderful area of rocks, Blackstone edge. This edge is wider than Millstone Edge with more rocks, some of which were enormous and stretched for a much wider distance. Once again I had tremendous fun walking from one rock to another, even playing games with myself to see how far I could go without treading on the ground. Eventually the rocks petered out and my fun finally ended after I passed the medieval Aiggin Stone and reached Broad Head Drain, which was a sign of things to come. The easy path beside this concrete water channel took me to the White House pub on the A58, yet another Trans-Pennine road, and there now followed a long tedious section of the Pennine Way as I walked along easy reservoir access roads alongside drains, and beside the reservoirs of Blackstone Edge, Light Hazzles and Warland. Although the walking was tedious the weather was good, despite a strong wind, so I was able to relax and just enjoy the passing easy miles in the sunshine. It was just a pity the moorland scenery wasn’t more appealing. 

Finally the track came to an end in a boggy path that was worse than anything I had yet encountered. This was possibly a reminder of what most of the Pennine Way was like twenty years ago, but there was still a drain alongside the path so I was able to walk along the edge of that when the path was too bad. At the point where the drain finally turned, sharp right, away from the trail, flag stones returned to remind me of the modern standard for the final part of the day's walk as I approached the Stoodley Pike monument. At Withins Gate, just before I reached the pinnacle, I dropped down the slopes to the left on an excellent path that took me steeply down into the village of Mankinholes and the small youth hostel. This was quite an enjoyable walk with some nicely appreciated sunshine after the rain of the previous couple of days. There were some fun moments on this walk along the rocky edges, but also some tedious sections beside reservoirs, and an unwanted intrusion of civilisation in the form of the M62.