Midge Walkers

Walk No.  152

Around Brockholes 1st May 2022.

Following a week of pretty good weather, Sunday the 1st had taken a downward turn. Notwithstanding 11 of our regular members assembled on the drive leading to the crematorium at Red Scar. We were about to embark on an expedition not previously undertaken by the group, which in itself becomes increasingly difficult with the advance in time and the number of walks completed.

Following the Guild Wheel sign from Crematorium Avenue, we turned into the tree lined route surrounding the site and continued along the path designated as Pope Lane, until it emerged into open ground, where we took a branch to the left. Skirting the outer perimeter of the trees, we soon arrived at an inlet, back into the trees and started a steep descent on a cobbled way, intermittently interrupted with safety barriers on the route to prevent building up too much speed on our downward course.

Arriving safely at the bottom we branched left and crossed a grassed area to reach the River bank, which we followed to the right for some distance, until having passed beyond an area of foliage, we climbed from the bank to view the Brockholes site and having passed through the car parking areas, we followed the pathways to the floating visitors centre. Despite the many facilities available, the only one which appeared to carry any particular attraction was the W.C.. Truly amazing!!

Resuming our journey, we returned to the path towards the River, taking a route through a tree lined path, parallel to the water’s edge until arriving at the road accessing the site from the main A 59. Passing under a series of three underpasses consisting of the main M6 and two slip roads, we continued along the strip between the river and the man-made lakes forming the second Brockholes site, to its end at the bottom of Brockholes Brow. Whilst not exactly 5- star luxury, this was our chosen site for our coffee break and a number of concrete blocks formed the seating facilities.

After the usual photo stop we followed a path away from the A 59 through the trees, where we took a left turn to start climbing up a gulley, which in some cases necessitated crawling on hands and knees to gain the summit. It rapidly became obvious to Rodney and myself that this was not the route we had originally researched, but it became better to say nothing than to own up to our error at this stage. Emerging on to Bowness Rd we continued to the opposite end and took the path behind the houses and through the trees to arrive at The Green and continued into Village Drive.

It was at about this stage that we thought we better come clean and confess to not having a clue as to our whereabouts. Fortunately, we had already been spotted and a local offered assistance and pointed us in the right direction. Turning about face we walked to the opposite end of the road and took a right into Pope Lane and along the lengthy route through Ribbleton Hall Estate to arrive at a pedestrian foot-bridge crossing the motorway. Continuing along the path straight ahead ultimately brought us to the Y junction where we had branched off about three hours earlier and so we continued along the last part of Pope Lane to regain our starting point.

We had been lucky with the weather and some of the protective gear worn at the commencement had been aborted and returned to its storage position as a means of keeping cool. As nobody except the leaders really new the proposed route, it was likely that we had escaped too much embarrassment and what should have been a 5 mile walk actually ended up at 5.75. But the verdict was, we had all enjoyed ourselves.