Winter Hill and Rivington Pike 15th June 2019

Rivington Hall.

Climbing the steps to the through the ornamental gardens of Lever Park.

Looking across a recently restored pond towards the dovecot.

Last climb to Winter Hill

Looking North from Winter Hill.

At the trig point on Winter Hill.

The well cared for Scotchman's Stump.

Looking North towards the masts on Winter Hill.

Looking over Cotton grass covered moorland towards Rivington Pike.

Trying to avoid some of the boggy bits on on the Rotary Way across Two Lads and Crooked Edge Hill.

The climb to the large stone Two Lads cairn.

At the Two Lads Cairn.

Looking South from Rivington Pike.

The view from our lunch spot in Lever Park.

Crossing a footbridge as we descended from Rivington Pike along a series of paved paths and steps.

Part of The Castle on the East side of Lower Rivington Reservoir.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.4 miles. 1372'.

Time: 4hours 30 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.0 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Mike, John and Elaine.

We weren't sure whether we would get rain or not, with the BBC suggesting it would rain after 14-00 and the Met Office suggesting that there was an over fifty percent chance of rain all day. At least they both agreed that wouldn't be cold with a feel like temperature of around 12 Celsius and only a gentle breeze.

 We set off up the drive towards Rivington Hall, already with plenty of parked cars in parking areas on both sides of the road.

 John, one of our Bolton friends, led us through sections of the ornamental garden to the first objective of the day - the "pigeon". Everywhere we went in the ornamental gardens there was evidence of a major restoration taking place to bring the gardens back to look as they did when first created.

 Leaving the dovecot, we set off along the Belmont Road, knowing that we needed to cross a wooden footbridge onto the open moorland and the final climb to the masts on Winter Hill.

 We had been walking along this road for longer than we expected, and stopped to look at  the map, Two walks heading down the road, stopped to ask if we were lost and reassured us that the wooden footbridge was a little further ahead of us.

 After crossing the footbridge we were soon greeted by singing Skylarks, a delightful sound that accompanied us all the way from the masts to Crooked Edge Hill.

 It was surprising to see so much Cotton grass making distant views of the moorland around the masts appear as though the moors were decked in snow,

 Approaching Rivington Pike it became obvious that this was a very popular place walkers, so much so that it was impossible to take a photo of the just the building.

 It was just as we started to descend the steps from the Pike that it started to rain, so much so that some of the group stopped to put on their waterproofs. The rain had come just a little earlier than we had hoped and even worse just as we wanted to stop for lunch.

 We ended up taking lunch, sheltering in the trees overlooking one of the ornamental pond. This was a stand up lunch, the first time we had failed to locate a suitable place to sit. Thankfully the worst of the rain passed through as we had lunch sheltering in the trees. Ahead of us now was the descent through the ornamental gardens along the labyrinth of paved terraces linked by steps.

 The final section of the walk was along the wooded path from The Castle along the edge of the Lower Rivington Reservoir. The Castle was full of people, again making it impossible to take any photos of folly. Birds seen today included: Common blackbird, Common kestrel, Black-headed gull, Carrion crow, Mallard, Common swift, Barn swallow, Meadow pipit, Skylark and if you believe Mike and Elaine - a yellow duck!

 It started to rain again as we headed up from the "Go Ape" area back to the car.

 We arrived back at the car, having had an enjoyable walk, especially so as our friends from Bolton were able to join us and guide us through the ornamental gardens sections of the walk.

  After walk drinks for the Chester members of the group was at the Netherton Hall, Frodsham, where eventually we were able to enjoy a pint of Lees bitter, well worth waiting for the barrel to be changed.