Walking Millstone Edge looking for The Brigadoon Stone

Brodie Dog near the Brigadoon Stone

I had some time over Twixtmas / ‘Chrimbo Limbo’ which I’d blocked off for a walk on the hills with Brodie Dog. I had a notion to walk up to Millstone Edge, which I haven’t done for a while.

Then this morning friend Jenny invited me for a walk, but I couldn’t make that (I was awaiting a delivery). But the great weather and that invite made my mind up – I’d do an afternoon walk if I could (packing the head torch in case I was still out late on).

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Peak Bog Christmas Jaunt 2016

peak Bog Men on Marsden Moor

This was the third year that I’ve joined the Peak Bog Men Runners on their nighttime christmas jaunt to the middle of the moors, to decorate a previously selected fir tree (or trig point, as was last year).

The name is a misnomer for these jaunts as (a) some of the group a walkers (b) Peak Bog Women are in attendance (c) Peak Bog Canines are in attendance (d) strictly speaking we were on Marsden Moor – although at the very northern edge of the Peak District.

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Inundation

Deer Hll catchwater towards Pule

I was prompted to write this post by the recent inundation of communities in this part of the world and my own (modest) experience of flooding. So whilst it’s not a post about hiking it is still about the oft wet moors that surround me and where I often walk. I’m conscious it’s a bit ‘rambling recollection meets essay’.

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Greenfield to Marsden via Laddow Rocks – a Halloween hike

Wimberry Rocks Saddleworth

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.

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A last look for Lepus Timidus – Mountain Hare ..

Watching out for Mountain Hare in Marsden

I took my two boys to look for the Easter Bunny this weekend. I’ll reframe that (to change the scene in your head): they’re 25 and 21 and we were after Mountain Hare. But the Hares were harder to find than all those badly hidden Easter eggs in the garden over the years. Despite lots of tell-tale Maltesers in evidence (keeping the chocolate theme going), no Hares were seen this time. The lads were home for Easter weekend and we’d set off early in the evening on the final round of the two grid squares I had been allocated for the National Trust annual Mountain Hare survey.

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Snatching words on the Marsden Poetry Trail

March Hill Marsden Moors hike Hiking Yorkshire Walking rambling

I set out last Saturday with friends Jenny, Karl and Taru, after the Hare surveying training, to walk the Marsden poetry trail that I put together last year.

Taru and Jenny had wanted to do the ten mile circular that navigates Pule Hill, Close Moss and March Hill. The weather looked like it would be pretty good to us. Although good in Marsden is relative: ‘fresh’ or ‘blowy’ would be kind euphemisms.

But as Simon Armitage says in ‘Snow’ (a great piece and a stop along the trail) : ‘We should make the most of the light”. That’s a pointer to the poet’s birthplace and conditioning right there.

The poems that we took turns reading out at each ‘waymarker’ (yes, I sprang that on them) were frequently snatched from mouth and hand.

And the winds crashing against the industrial cliffs of Pule Hill quarry knocked Taru and Jenny over at one point. Then threatened to snatch at least one of the three hounds off and away into neighbouring Lancashire.

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