Colne Valley Circular Walk Hike Marsden Moors

Swellands hike – checking a Walkers Are Welcome new route

On Saturday I did the last of my route / map check walks for the soon to be published Marsden Walkers Are Welcome guides. Despite really strong winds on the exposed parts of the moors the weather was great. No actual rain, for the walk or indeed the whole day, amazing 🙂

The overview of the walk from the WaW site is : “This 6.5 mile walk will take you from the Marsden centre into the scenic Wessenden Valley, containing ancient woodlands and deep upland reservoirs, then onto sections of the Pennine Way and Standedge Trail close to the watershed and above Swellands Reservoir. This walk contains some sustained ascents, descents and rough terrain.”

If you were reasonably fit and visiting the area and wanted a slice of West Yorkshire Moors experience, this is a great walk. Reservoirs  exposed moors sections, waterfalls, views of the industrial village below – the lot. Oops this is turning into a review. “Walkers who hiked the route also liked this one”. I didn’t see too much wildlife this time round but in the past (I know this route pretty well) I’ve stood and watched hares and hawks at different stages. By hawks I mean Kestrel and also Merlin (I believe I’ve seen a Merlin once or twice) and also Red Kite (I’m pretty sure based on research I’ve done).

Here are a few pics from the outing with Brodie Dog.

Looking towards Blakeley Res from Butterley Res
Looking towards Blakeley Res from Butterley Res
Marsden Heritage Trail marker 11
I’ve been adding these heritage trail stones as geo points on foursquare. Never managed this one as no signal. maybe that’s a good thing..
Black Moss reservoir
Black Moss reservoir – not sure why it distorted in-camera but I like the effect.
Stone flags as paving slabs marsden Moor
The stone path flags that are used to pave boggy sections of the moors (this pic on the section before Black Moss res) above Marsden come from the reclaimed floors of old Mills. You can see indentations from machine supports or legs..
Brodie Dog looking down the Marsden
Brodie Dog looking down the Marsden

On the descent into Marsden (on Old Mount Road) we passed a house selling home-made jams and chutneys. The day bag had some space so I bought a couple 🙂

http://instagram.com/p/UHjAtcJXtI/

related posts:

http://www.walkingmum.com/content/view/154/76/

http://www.wessendenwoollies.com/2012/holiday-walking/

4 thoughts on “Swellands hike – checking a Walkers Are Welcome new route”

  1. I did a walk setting off from Marsden last year. The intention was to visit all the reservoirs with the Riverhead Brewery Tap beer names, but torrential rain put the kaibosh on that. It was still an excellent walk though.

    Reply
  2. I did a walk from Marsden last year. The intention was to visit the reservoirs with Riverhead Brewery Tap beer names, but torrential rain put the kaibosh on that. Still an excellent walk though.

    Reply
    • A Riverhead beers (reservoirs) themed walk is a great idea! The weather around the moors always has that danger of being hit and miss though doesn’t it :-/ ?

      Reply
      • We had every type of weather that day and ironically, the worst of it along the watershed on Saddleworth Moor! I’ve drunk in the Riverhead so many times when I was doing work in Marsden and had no idea where the name for the beers came from.

        Reply

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