Monday March 21st

 A day out for David and Paul in preparation for planned forthcoming trips.

We met at the Woodhead Station/Tunnel parking spot, having negotiated the heavily potholed approach. David had wanted to spend a bit more time on Bleaklow for quite a while, and today had it in spades. Our first objective was the Barrow Stones and the initial section was the straightforward shooting party's approach beside Far Black Clough. David's idea of "contouring" around Swains Greave turned out not to be as practical as hoped as everywhere was thoroughly "groughed". However, The Barrow Stones were well worth another visit


Old habits die hard...



Once we reached the Barrow Stones, the path became much easier and we worked our way around to the Grinah Stones and then traversed to the Bleaklow Stones where we had lunch. From the Bleaklow Stones it was a game of "spot the stakes" as we followed the alleged watershed- believable as such as there was no higher ground to be seen, or any other ground for that matter. We skipped a visit to the Wain Stones and Hern Stones although, strictly speaking, perhaps we should have included them to get the full set of Bleaklow's stones. From Bleaklow Head, we descended Near Black Clough which took us back past the ford at the base of the Black Cloughs, handy for rinsing the Bleaklow peat from our boots. 

A very enjoyable 10 miles and 477m of ascent.

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