Phantom planes, occult activities and ghostly figures have been allegedly heard or spotted over the years around the saddleworth moor area. Perfect then for an eighteen mile hike across part of them, on Halloween, as devised by friends Jenny and Mac. And a chilli at Jenny’s had been planned for afterwards, making it even more of an event to look forward to.
Saddleworth
A Marsden Poetry Trail
UPDATE: since writing the blog post below, I have created a specific page on this site for the poetry trail. See this link to the Marsden Poetry Trail for map info and excerpts from the poems and poets featured.
I’ll start with a disclaimer: this Marsden Poetry Trail isn’t the poetry trail that begins at ‘Snow’, the quarry-chiselled poem by Simon Armitage and then wends its way across to Ilkley. Although ‘ The Snow Stone’ does feature in this here trail.
This is ‘a’ Marsden poetry trail (9.5 miles) of my own noodling. It was devised as a bit of a hello to a murmur of poets who started following the blog after a kind reblog from poet David Coldwell. (I wasn’t sure of the collective noun for poets – take your pick from here : http://cordite.org.au/newsblog/a-collective-noun-for-poets/)
Discovering I had poets as a section of my followers kickstarted the idea for a themed walk.
And it actually meant a fair bit of enjoyable desk-research before I got my boots on. I’ve learnt a lot, sat here on my bum, over a couple of evenings and thanks again to David for catalysing that.
Marsden Moor Heritage Trail – what’s with the stones?
Ask Google about the ‘Marsden Moors Heritage Trail’ and you get a range of links but none that definitively explain why there are a number of stones dotted around the valley and moors.. and why they are in those specific locations. Or what the specific number on each relates to. I had a lovely morning walk out up the hills … read more >
A walk to New Lancashire – the Standedge Trail
On saturday I headed off across to New Lancashire for a circular walk that was about 10 miles in total. New Lancashire is that part of Saddleworth that used to be Old Yorkshire before some chaps in brown suits commandeered it as part of a metropolitan area shake up, back in the 1970s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddleworth) Anyway, they annexed off as many … read more >
Out on a walk – the geek edition
So, I’ve decided that before I attempt the national 3 peaks I need to make sure I can find my way up and down them. Obviously paper maps are a must – actually, learning to read one properly is a must also – but I’m a geek so I also want to try out a GPS system. I’ve looked at … read more >