Hordron And Near Cat Clough

I was surprised to hear a car horn being repeatedly pressed as I made my way through the Langsett woods. As I reached the fields at the edge of the woods, the cause became apparent; a farmer was collecting his sheep. I was also surprised at the amount of water coming down the stream at the ford on the Hordron Road. I hoped this wasn't an indication of mega-boggy conditions on the moors. As I made my way along the Hordron Raod, the sun came up over Pike Low and for a while the landscape glowed. It didn't last long though. By the time I got to the barn at Upper Hordron, the sun went behind a cloud and didn't make a reappearance for the rest of the walk.

I made my way up Near Cat Clough. I was glad of the cooling windy conditions since it was actually quite mild. I'd learn later that today would be the warmest New Year's Day on record.

Outer Edge

At the top of Near Cat Clough the Crow Stones came into view. These are an impressive set of stones and well worth a visit, but they weren't on my itinerary today. Fortunately the tops of the moors weren't as boggy as I'd expected, although you still could go up to your knees in mud if you weren't careful. I exchanged 'hellos' with the first walker of the day. I thought about going for a 'Happy New Year' but the fellow looked a bit glum.

I soon reached the trig on Outer Edge. The surrounding area is actually quite flat, but it is high up (541 metres) and you can see for miles in all directions. It really was quite dark and gloomy, although I could see the sun shining over Barnsley.

As I set off towards the Cut Gate path, I almost stepped on a mountain hare. He bounded off and then sat down about 200 metres away. I guessed that he was wondering where the snow was since in these conditions he was very easy to spot. I kept an eye on him, and he stayed in the same spot for a good ten minutes. I'd seen some mountain hares in this area last year, although I do remember seeing greater numbers in the 80s and 90s.

V1 Rocket Crater

I decided to cheer myself up even more by visiting the V1 Crater on Featherbed Moss. From PO Kyne's memorial, you can see what looks like a tarn a few hundred metres off to the left. It is in fact a crater from a German V1 rocket that landed here on Christmas Eve 1944. For years I'd walked and run past this assuming it was just a tarn.

The crashed rocket was one of a number of rockets that were released from about 50 Heinkel 111s out in the North Sea. Their target had been Manchester's industrial areas. The V1 rockets were of course indiscriminate and some of the rockets fell on to urban areas. 42 people were killed with over a 100 injured.

More info on my 'Venture: Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks'

Back To Civilisation

After only seeing a handful of walkers all day, it was a bit of a shock to get back to the Langsett area. Lots of other people had decided to take a shorter New Year's plod around the Langsett reservoir. 'Is it boggier further up?', one fellow in a group asked me. I pointed to my mud splattered gaiters. One in the group was wearing some rather expensive looking white trainers.

It was even worse when I got back to the chaos of the car park. Somebody in a car tailed me as I walked through the car park. When I stopped near my car, he wound down his window and asked me if I was leaving. As the saying goes, 'Would he have jumped in my grave as quickly?

Although the weather had been gloomy, the strong winds had blown my 2021 cobwebs away. I'm ready now for 2022.