Bluebells still in flower south east of Downham.
Pendle Hill from Great Coppy.
Treking across Great Coppy.
A singing Skylark trying to make itself heard above the noise of the wind.
The popular trig point on the Beacon/Big End, Pendle Hill.
Lunch at the new wind shelter on Pendle Hill.
A Russian inscription at the new Pendle Hill wind shelter.
It means "beauty" but why is it a Russian inscription there?
Green hairstreak on Pendle Hill.
Skylark on Pendle Hill.
A Skylark on Pendle Hill.
Rain approaching?
Crossing Pendle Hll towards the wind shelter and Scout Cairn beyond.
More Blubells on the south west side of Downham.
Walk stats: Distance: 8.2 miles. 1540'.
Time: 5 hours 25 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.0 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.5 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Roger and Jim.
Arriving at Downham, I was surprised to find that once more a fell race taking place, having previously checked on the internet and found that the Pendle Hill Fell race had taken place in April. In addition a local mayor had chosen today for his charity walk, so we set off knowing that there was no chance of seeing any Dotterel.
We started an hour before the fell race was due to start, and didn't see any fell racers until around mid-day when we started to climb the wide path from Pendle House to reach the plateau south of the trig point.
So far the weather had been kind to us, being largely bright and sunny, with a cooling wind at times. We didn't see any Dotterel, but frequently heard Willow warblers and Skylarks. The Skylarks seemed to be everywhere as w crossed the Great Coppy and the area of Pendle Hill plateau as we headed east towards the large high walled wind shelter.
The trig pount was very crowded, so we deided a team photo at the highest point on the walk wouldn't be easy, so we carried on in search of a sheltered spot for lunch.
Our surprise today was to find a new wind shelter that w hadn't previously noticed before, even though it had been built in 2017 by a stonemason called Pill Dolphin.
Apparently it had been designed to enable people to sit and enjoy the views across Pendle Hill towards the east. Perhaps the beautiful views from this excellent wind shelter was the origin of the inscription " Kpacota", but why I still don't know why it should be in Russian.
However we did linger here for some time as we basked the the warm sunshine sheltered from the wind as we had our lunch. Even a small bright green butterfly joined ius for a while.
As we headed eastward across the Pendle Hill plateau towards the Scout cairn, we could see bad weather coming in the Trough of Bowlands direction. We were hopeful it would just miss us, but alas it didn't, and we were forced to put our waterproofs on, as the hail started. It didn't last long and as often happens by the time we had put on all of our waterproofs it had stopped. We decided to leave them on until we had dropped down about 600' and were on the path adjacent to Burst Clough on the west side of Worston Moor.
Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Greenfinch, Common chaffinch, Rook, Raven, Common buzzard, Stonechat, Meadow pipit, Skylark, Willow warbler, European robin, Common blackbird, Barn swallow, Fieldfare, Goldfinch and red grouse.
We arrived back at the car, having had a really good walk, and learned that the fell racers had completed a 14 mile race with over 4000' of climb, I don't think doing a fell race would ever get on my "bucket list", if I decided to make one.
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Netherton Hall in Frodsham, where thankfully the Lees Bitter was once more available to revive us (our legs had stiffened up, and we all hobbled in like three old men! I suppose we should in reality admit that is what we are!)
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