Bradshaw to The Strawbury Duck for Sunday lunch (and back again!)

18.8.13
Walking with; Ruthy, Paul, Jen, Emily and Kate

There can be few better ways to spend a Sunday than a gentle stroll in the Summer sunshine to a country pub with a bunch of good friends. I knew nothing of this area before yesterday, my experiences of the Bolton area being confined to playing various games of rugby there over the years, however by the time you reach Bradshaw the urban sprawl dissipates and rolling countryside opens out before you.
We set off from the houses on the site of the old Bradshaw Bleach works and were soon making our way through the Bradshaw Bottoms woodland, following the stream past old quarries and squelching through the occasional puddle until we hit the Jumbles Reservoir, an impressive body of water dotted with sailing boats and Canada Geese and sparkling in the sunshine. I like reservoir walking, the going underfoot is usually easy and walking by bodies of water always adds something to a ramble. There were plenty of wildflowers and birds flitting in and out of the foliage and it felt a shame to leave the shelter of the canopy and emerge in the cluster of houses. We climbed up through Turton before heading off along the path flanking our second reservoir of the day, Wayoh. The reservoir was completed in 1876 and is one of the two main sources of drinking water for the Bolton area. Along the path there were Wild Raspberries, Heather and plenty of Rose Bay Willow Herb and there were Cormorant, Canada Geese and Mallard on the water. We eventually wound our way up the hill and there before us like a welcome mirage loomed the welcoming sight of "The Strawbury (sic) Duck", a pub that as a group we can heartily recommend for treats including Potted Duck, Roast Beef and Cod and Chips, not to mention friendly staff and good beer....well worth the effort!
Replete and in need of walking off a few calories we retraced our steps back along the reservoirs and woodland paths to Bradshaw safe in the knowledge we'd had a Sunday well spent!

Aira Force and Dockray

31.3.13
Walking with; Rich

After a couple of weeks of indolence as a result of a rugby obtained knee injury it felt good to be out and about even on the gentlest of ambles. I was in the Lakes on a stag do staying at the fantastically appointed Blencathra Centre, in the shadow of the eponymous hill and with magnificent vistas of snow capped peaks. The stag and less injured parties were off scrambling in ghylls and via ferrata-ing, so it was left to me and Rich (hobbled by a hip injury) to enjoy a perambulation of a less demanding sort.
  Wordsworth writes in his poem "The Somnambulist", "Wild stream of Aira, hold thy course" and the falls are mentioned in two further works of his. They are certainly a popular spot and easily accessible from the Ullswater road. The name is believed to come from the Nordic "eyrara" meaning "gravel-bank stream" with the word force (or sometimes foss) being a commonly used term for waterfall. The land is now owned by the National Trust but was developed as a pleasure garden by the Howard family in the eighteenth century who landscaped the area around their hunting lodge. The two bridges are dedicated to members of the Spring-Rice family and are popular photo spots.
Our car park provided good views of Ullswater and the snowy hills beyond and we descended the gentle path through the pine arboretum before crossing the stream and climbing slowly up the other side of the valley.  The view of the falls from below is spectacular and was enhanced by the icicles and frozen spray decorating the surrounding rocks. We continued, following the river, until we eventually reached the tiny hamlet of Dockray for a pint of "hair of the dog" in the very attractive "Royal Hotel". It was a simple matter of following the road back to the car then and whilst four ambled miles might not represent my most challenging walk, it felt could to be back out in the countryside once more, and even more pleasingly, the knee held up pretty well!

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Fernilee Reservoir

22.01.13
Walking with; Nobody

Snow seems to divide the nation, one half turning into big kids and the other into whingers and moaners, perhaps the divide is based on whether you have to go to work in it, because spending a day wandering through the Peak District in the snow is, quite frankly, one of the best things I can think of doing! It's a while since I have found a completely new walk in the Peaks so I pulled my well thumbed "Pub Walks in the Peak District"  out of the bookcase and on John Morrison's advice decided to try a variant on his stroll around Fernilee.
Fernilee is a hamlet, a mile or so South of Whalley Bridge and consists of "The Shady Oak" pub, a few farms and not a lot more. However a short stroll down the Goyt Valley there are the twin reservoirs of Fernilee and Errwood built in 1938 by the Stockport Water Corporation. I followed the footpath through Folds Lane Farm and down the pristine slopes to the River Goyt itself which I crossed before following a path that seemed better suited to cross country skiing than walking to the head of the Fernilee Reservoir.  Walking with the crunch of snow under boot, the sky blue and cloudless and a chill wind reddening your cheeks is hard to beat and my meander was further cheered by a friendly Robin accompanying me en route......no bird looks better against a backdrop of snow and holly. The next section took me through a fir plantation giving the walk a distinctly Scandanavian flavour before a path dropped down to the shore and I followed this to the dam separating the two reservoirs. It was being utilised by some kamikaze sledders who I watched in awe before lunching on top of the dam and spending ten minutes chatting to a gent who'd come down from the Cat and Fiddle.
I circumvented Bunsal Cob before taking the Midshires Way and heading through some seriously deep, drifted snow to the roadside viewpoint of Long Hill with views back towards the reservoir and across to Ladbitch Wood and Taxal Moor. The slog across the thigh deep drifts made me feel like Titus Oates, except with a little less immediate peril. Crossing the access land North of the A5004 I headed through more deep snow up to the Old Road which led me past the very lonely and remote farm at Wythen Lache and back through a true Winter wonderland to the lane down to the pub which sadly had just closed thus depriving me of a well needed pint and opportunity to thaw out in front of a fire......ah well, there's always next time!
All this snow has seriously whetted my appetite for our ski trip, one month from today, so fingers crossed it continues in this vein!

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