2012 Walks

Sunday 8 January: Haslingden to Rochdale

A very happy New Year to you all and a healthy 2012! You must have missed us so much- too many of us were away or too busy to organise a December walk. To get the juices going again and honour those New year resolutions, join us for a walk in the bracing January air this Sunday, January 8th.

We will cross the Rossendale district from Haslingden to Rochdale. The walk will be ca 11 miles starting at the Bent Gate bus stop near Haslingden/ Rawtenstall and finishing in Rochdale. The route is not expected to be rough but will be muddy in places after all that rain. After a steep bit up to Cowpe Lowe, the Rossendale Way offers great views and a very civilised almost flat route until the gentle descent into Rochdale. There are several ways of shortening the last few miles into town by catching a bus if we get tired. Our reward will be a (few) beer(s) (and a meal if you like) at The Baum, a lovely old pub in the historic Toad Lane “district”. Trains from Rochdale to Manchester Victoria run once every hour and take just 20 minutes. We should be able to catch the 17:09 from Rochdale easily.

The timing above will allow for snacks along the way and a pub lunch in Rochdale.

12th February: Merseyside coast and the Gormleys

This month's walk is an easy one! We will travel to Merseyside for a 6 mile coastal walk from Hightown to Crosby, home of the magnificent Antony Gormley sculpture "Another Place." Essentially this backwards: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jun/06/antony-gormley-coastline-crosby-merseyside-walk

We meet at 9:30 outside to the left of Manchester Oxford Road station to catch the 9:45 train, changing at Hunts Cross, and arriving at Hightown around 11:20. We will depart Crosby (Waterloo station) on the 15:55 (or earlier) train, arriving back at Oxford Road at 5:30.

There is the opportunity for a nice lunch at the Bistro in the Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre. See Note on Sundays they have a carvery, but there is a vegetarian option.

There is probably no need for walking boots this time but please be sensible with clothing and allow for it to be cold, wet and very windy!

11 March: Walking from Edale to New Mills

For our March walk we will return to the Hope Valley, Hayfield and New Mills walking approximately 10 miles from Edale to New Mills. The route is not expected to be rough but could be muddy in places. There will be a fairly steep 30 minutes up Jacob's Ladder getting out of the Hope Valley, proceeded and followed by more gentle climbing and then mostly flat or downhill.

We will be getting to Edale by train; meet at Manchester Piccadilly at 9.00 to catch the 9:22 am train to Edale.

15 April: Bury to Ramsbottom

This is a short walk along canal and low level terrain within very easy travel from Manchester and a superb pub at the end. We will be traveling to Bury by Metrolink and return by bus and tram.

10th June: Gritstone Trail and Tegg's Nose

Hopefully by now everyone has managed to get the Morecambe Bay sand out of their socks/ shoes/ kit… It’s been an exciting and very windy walk across the bay in May. I’ll never be squeamish about walking right through deep puddles again.

Our June walk will return to dry land. We will walk a ca. 10 mile loop from Macclesfield via White Nancy, the Gritstone trail and Tegg’s Nose, finishing with a late pub lunch at Sutton Hall.

We will be travelling from Manchester Piccadilly railway station. Meet up at 10:20 near the information desk to catch the 10:35 train to Macclesfield (it’s the Virgin train to London, expected platform 7). We should get back into Manchester around 6pm; there are 3 trains per hour.

The timing above will allow for snacks along the way (enjoying the views!) and a pub stop at the end.

8th July: Todmorden to Hebden Bridge

With a slight change of original plans, we walked from Todmorden doing a section of the Calderdale Way and ending up in Hebden Bridge for a late lunch. The route was approximately 8 miles and include views across the valleys as well as lowland wooded areas around Hebden Bridge.

Meet at 10.00am by the ticket office at Victoria Station to catch the 10:14 train (Northern Rail to Leeds). Don’t be late, there is only one train every hour. The train journey time is approximately 40 mins, so aiming for the 5:45 from Hebden Bridge we should be back in Victoria by 6:30pm- depending on which train we use to travel back.

We will be getting to Clitheroe by train – meet at Manchester VICTORIA at 9.45 to catch the 10.00 train to Clitheroe. Meet at the coffee stand opposite the ticket office. (The stand may not be serving coffee at that time but maybe with a group of us we can persuade the owner to open early for us!). We will be returning to Manchester for 18.52 on the 17.40 from Clitheroe. The timing above will allow time for a few stops on the walk before we get to the pub, please bring enough food and drink to last the day.