13.04.26 Blake Moor (SD 971 212)
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| Blake Moor (SD 971 212) |
Over recent times, trips
to the moors above Burnley have taken place twice a year; usually in April and
October; one where the greenery and springs warmth is beginning and the other when
autumnal colours are predominant. As
with most planned trips in Britain they are weather dependent and especially so
for hill walking. This visit was no
different with heavy localised showers forecast for the first day of our two
day visit and rain heading up from the south during the afternoon of our second
day.
I drove to Mark’s and he
then drove north to meet John outside the White House pub at the top of the A58
road. On our way we had a detour in and around
Rochdale to acquaint ourselves with the splendours of this town. It’s always good to see Mr Kirk and once
parked and the customary hand shakes and hugs were had, we were soon happily
seated in the pub for a lunchtime meal.
Afterward it was time to visit the hill.
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| Meeting place, meal and the start of our walk; the White House pub |
Our chosen hill for the
day was Blake Moor, which is typical of much of these hills as it’s dominated
by open surrounds and consists of heather and moor grass, with an occasional
rock outcrop adding interest. After our
meal I quickly got my walking boots on and headed up the road and through a
gate to join the good track leading northward beside the Blackstone Edge
Reservoir.
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| Our inward track |
If not for this track
and its continuation the hill would be a wild affair with much heather and no
doubt bog to walk through. However, the
track gave a semblance of serenity to the surrounds as it made its way north
leaving the first reservoir before joining the next three; these are the Little
Hazzles Reservoir where a pair of Canada Geese croaked their annoyance of
vacating their spot on the track as we approached. The other two are the White Holme Reservoir
which we visited on our downward route and the most northerly; the Warland
Reservoir.
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| One of the Canada Geese |
I’d set off wearing
trousers and light fleece coat but the open skies with blue and intermittent
cloud meant I was soon over heating. By
now John had caught me up and as we waited for Mark I took the opportunity to
convert my trousers to shorts. Waiting beside
one of the reservoirs proved a welcome few minutes rest before we continued
toward the southern edge of the Warland Reservoir, here we followed the
continuation of the thin ribbon of water that constitutes the Little Hazzles
Reservoir, before leaving the welcome confines of the track and heading up in
to heather and moor grass for a direct approach toward the high point of Blake
Moor.
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| John on the green track beside the Little Hazzles Reservoir |
By now dark grey shower
cloud was massing to our east, with little wind the showers were no doubt slow
moving. As the track petered out we
followed a semblance of a path as it headed up on to the higher moor. The high point of Blake Moor is approximately
200 metres south-eastward from a triangulation pillar, which had been a
prominent white indicator on the horizon during much of our inward walk. We were soon on the top with much of the hill
consisting of the customary moor grass and heather.
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| Heading for the summit |
As this hill had been
LIDAR’ed I had no intention of Trimbling it, but still placed the survey
equipment on top of my rucksack on the high point of the hill for the customary
summit photograph.
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| The summit of Blake Moor |
We debated heading back
the same way, but decided on following a fence roughly south-east down to the
eastern end of the White Holme Reservoir, with a path on the western side of
the fence giving encouragement for a relatively easy downward route. This would also give us a circular walk instead
of the there and back option.
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| On the track beside the White Holme Resrvoir |
By the time we reached
the track on the southern edge of the expanse of water I was in head down and
plodding mode. We only stopped occasionally, for me this was to take a photo looking across the waters or
toward the distant hazy spires of Manchester which stood out on the horizon.
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| The distant spires of Manchester |
By now my two colleagues
were slowly pulling ahead leaving me to my own devices. Initially I was in no particular hurry,
although the threatening build up of late afternoon deep grey shower cloud made
me quicken my pace, with the easterly mass of cloud still lingering, but now
showers were breaking out closer to where we were.
I made it back to the
awaiting cars where John and Mark were getting their boots off, dry from any
threatening rain and happy in the knowledge that another hill had been visited
and partially explored.
Survey Result:
Blake Moor
Summit Height: 420.9m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 97191 21217 (LIDAR)
Col Height: 382.4m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SD 96557 19725 (LIDAR)
Drop: 38.5m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 9.14% (LIDAR)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
