Sunday 15th March, Fairy Trails

 

This little walk was an East Lancashire LDWA event and was aimed at attracting new members to the club. At 14 miles, the distance wasn’t scary for potential new members, nor was the pace which was reasonably brisk without being fast.

So at 9am the group of 14 walkers plus 2 doggies (who were also walkers) set off from the rendezvous, a layby on the B5209, just to the east of Parbold, to enter Fairy Glen.

West Lancashire District Council describe Fairy Glen as being ‘designated as a Biological Heritage Site for its ancient woodland of oak, birch, ash and alder, the woodland floor may be covered with bluebells, wild garlic, ferns, and red campion.
The waters of Sprodley Brook have, over time, cut down through the underlying sandstone to create the steep Fairy Glen valley, which has spectacular waterfalls and cliff faces.’

The route took us south from the B5209, through the wooded (and only a bit muddy) Fairy Glen to Appley Bridge and then onto the Leeds Liverpool Canal towpath.

Walking through Fairy Glen

Happiness….well, it wasn’t raining 

 Appley Bridge, and what fine a place to park your diving bell

The Leeds Liverpool Canal

From the canal we followed tracks and footpaths, enduring various degrees of muddiness and not-so muddiness until we gained the giddy heights of Ashurst’s Beacon.

Jeanette and Angela playing the (baby) goat

One for Alan

Ashurst’s Beacon and another photo shoot.

Ashurst’s Beacon was once part of a series of beacons that ran from Liverpool to Lancaster and dates back to the Anglo-Spanish war of 1585. According to Wiki! It’s also very popular amongst the radio amateur fraternity being as wot it’s 170m ASL and so gives a great take-off for playing radio.

Lunch No2  (I’m not sure where Lunch No1 was)

After Ashurst’s Beacon our Glorious Leaders led us back down to the Leeds Liverpool Canal and then through Parbold. Mud, a former windmill and then even more mud followed. A few hundred yards from the end of the walk we came across a very conveniently located stream – everyone managed to clean most of the clag from their boots before getting back to the cars at 2.45pm.

On final approach

It was good to meet up with friends I’d not walked with for a good while, over a year in some cases. Thanks go to David & Alma who led the walk, and to everyone else who turned up and helped make it an enjoyable day out.

Leading a walk like that isn’t just a matter of plotting a route. Dave and Alma researched the area and carried out a thorough recce and so didn’t get us lost….well, not much ;-)

Very importantly, they led the walk at a sensible pace and ALWAYS made sure that nobody was ever left behind.

Where we went (clockwise):

 

13.7 miles with 1200’ ascent

More photos here.