Thursday September 19th
Marsden to Pots and Pans
David wanted to do a long walk today, and had hoped to do the Marsden to Pots and Pans route again, having done it for the first time back in April. I left Stockport in the sun with clear blue skies but as I headed out on the M62, I could see a cap of clouds over The Peak District. I entered the murk as I passed over Standedge and parked up, as usual, at the Marsden car park.
As I plodded up towards Pule Hill, I sent a snap of the Marsden Mills to Jacinta to compare the weather:
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| Marsden just below the murk |
I also sent a picture of Pule Hill to Rachel to compare with the last time that I walked this way:
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| Pule Hill in September |
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| Pule Hill in August! |
As ever when I pass the top of the Standedge Cutting, I reflected on the night spent in Peter's Transport Café when on the Pennine Way as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon (21st July, 1969). Now, the site is just a car park, although it's handy for some nice walks.
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| The site of Peter's Transport Café |
Going down from the site of the café, I passed the ventilation shaft for the canal below. Back in 1969, we had a day to pass as our support vehicle with much of our kit had collided with a ready-mix concrete lorry and I had idly thrown stones down the shaft. The first time, I heard the stone splash into the canal below. However, the next time (some hours later) it landed on something with a clunk... The shaft is now capped to prevent hooligans of all ages from chucking stones down it.
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| Capped canal air shaft |
The route isn't terrifically well described in the guidebook. Back in April, I tried to follow the directions literally but this time I referred more to the map and saved myself a lot of unnecessary (and pathless!) ascent and descent. At Diggle Edge there was a rather worrying warning on a gate.
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| I would definitely want to avoid a shady cat |
A little further on from Diggle Edge I met a trio of walkers who had started at Dove Stones and were heading for Meltham- a pretty decent walk- and warned me both of the wind on top of Pots and Pans, and of the bull in the field, which they told me was lying down in a hollow.
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| He's interested in me. I'm interested in him. We just went on our separate ways. |
Just below the Diggle Reservoir (and its rifle range) is a very impressive house, with a statue just beyond its gateposts (the gates are long gone). There's a statue there, though although at least two hands have been lost.
The route from Diggle, though Running Hill Head and Pobgreen is a rising traverse. Looking back, I could see the well-defined division between the clear air and the cloud bank covering Standedge and Marsden.
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| The metrological front? |
The final ascent to Pots and Pans is steep and, on reaching the top and its monument, it seemed a suitable time (13:00, about three hours' walking) for lunch. The view included the familiar walks above Dove Stones.
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| The monument and Pots and Pans rocks, distant, to its left |
From my lunch spot with its views, the walk goes more or less northeast to the trig point at Broadstone Hill where it goes eastwards over pathless terrain for a couple of kilometers until the earthworks of "The Cotton Famine Road" are met, and followed until the flagged path of the old Pennine Way is met.
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| Trig point at Broadstone Hill |
The return to Marsden is via the old, and then current, Pennine Way until the Kirklees way past the Blakely and Butterly reservoirs is joined for the last few kilometers. By now, the weather had perked up and the whole of Pule Hill was visible.
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| Black Moss reservoir with Pule Hill in the background |
An excellent walk of 15½ miles with 720m ascent.
