Lantern Pike

I followed a bridleway that led me gradually uphill in the direction of Lantern Pike. Lantern Pike would be my first Ethel of the day. If I looked back, beyond Rowarth, I could see Cown Edge, the second Ethel of the day. The path was a bit of a teaser in that halfway up Lantern Pike it swung to the right and contoured around the hill. In one of the neighbouring fields I saw three telephone poles with string or wire hanging from the telephone cable. I presumed it had been setup to grow something but the only vegetation in the field seemed to be weeds. Just a bit further along, the track took me through a farm building area. I'm not sure whether it was a working farm since it resembled a junk yard. There many cars, tractors and trailers dumped at the side of the track. The track brought me to a tarmac road and this had good views down into the valley to Birch Vale. The tarmace road was quite narrow and I had squeeze in a couple of times to allow cars to pass. After 5 minutes walk along the road, I picked up the Pennine Bridleway and this started taking me back uphill towards Lantern Pike. As I approached the top of the hill I stopped a moment to watch an aerial conflict between a Buzzard and a Kestrel. The smaller Kestrel seemed to have some success chasing the Buzzard away. Although Kestrels are smaller I guess they are more manoeuvrable than the larger Buzzard. Eventually the Buzzard gave up and soared away.

There was a stone pillar and a Toposcope on the summit of Lantern Pike. It was dedicated to Edwin Royce who was born in Slaithwaite in1880 and died in Manchester in 1946. Google says his ashes were scattered on Shuttlings Low. He was president of the Manchester Ramblers Federation, which later became the Ramblers Association.

Pennine Bridleway

I continued on the Pennine Bridleway descending down Lantern Pike, in the direction of Cown Edge. Maybe Edwin Royce chose Lantern Pike for his memorial plaque due to its fine views. The views were certainly better than I'd expected. I'd never walked around this area before and it was interesting to see the western edge of Kinder Scout. It seemed longer, higher and more impressive than I expected.

When the path from Lantern Pike flattened out I met a couple coming the other way. They hadn't brought a map and the man was confused as to which way was north. He then confused Hayfield with Hadfield. The woman excused her partner's lack of knowledge by saying that he was more interested in getting back to Rowarth and going to the pub.

A little further along, a Meadow Pippit flew on to a nearby stonewall to check me out. It was only when I zoomed into the photo on my cameras screen that I noticed that he had a couple of sticky buds stuck to his feathers. That must be annoying for him.

I continued along the Pennine Bridleway and this took a sharp left turn to go up to Cown Edge.

Cown Edge

It wasn't much of a climb up to Cown Edge. It looked higher than it felt. I'd followed a group of horses up to the edge and they now grazed on the plateau beyond. I could see the high buildings of Manchester's city centre beyond them. I followed the edge northwards towards Glossop. Two largish quarries appear on the edge, and the absence of rock feels a bit like missing teeth. Some sheep had decided to go to sleep on the very rim of the quarry and I was a little worried I might startle them over the edge. I made a wide diversion around them. Further along I watched a Kestrel making use of the updraft of the edge to soar along looking for food. Occasionally it would stop and hover in that distinctive Kestrel manner.

When the path started descending down towards Glossop, I turned around and started heading back along the edge towards Rowarth. There had been some amazing clouds bubbling up throughout the day. Occasionally some of them had been rather grey and I thought I might have been in for a spot of a rain. It never happened though. It had been a glorious day for walking. The path gradually descended down to Rowarth and it wasn't long before I was walking along that short picturesque main street.

I'd had relatively low expectations for this walk. On the map the route looked rather flat and there seemed to be a lot of field hopping. In reality, I'd found it a tremendous walk. Sure, I'd walked through some fields, but it felt more like walking over moorland than lowland fields. The views of the surrounding hills were also far better than my expectations. I've some more Ethels to climb in this area. I'd been viewing them as an Ethel ticking exercise, but now I'm actually looking forward to doing them.