It was a very calm night but still misty and drizzly first thing. I didn't want to pack the tent up in the rain so I waited till 7:55 before setting off. It was still quite gloomy as I re-joined the path of stone slabs down Blakely Clough until I came to a large square stone structure with a mast and solar panel on it. It looked like a water tank connected to an underground culvert. A steep, muddy and slippery descent took me down to Wessenden Brook and a footbridge which took me to a short path up to a vehicle track.

The path heads down Blakely Clough

Blakely Clough in Wainwright's book

Blakely Clough today

The misty A635

I turned right and followed it along the valley side to Wessenden Lodge which was a large gated property with outbuildings but no sign of anybody about. There were several deer in an adjacent enclosure. The track continued up past Wessenden Reservoir and continued higher to Wessenden Head Reservoir. The weather continued murky and drizzly so there wasn't much to see. The track left the reservoir and climbed to Wessenden Head Road where a flower and teddy bear memorial tied to a fence post on a bend indicated another tragedy. The road soon joined the main A635 Holmfirth to Manchester road but the mist continued to swirl around as I carefully crossed to avoid the speeding traffic.

I left the road to follow a straight path out onto the moor heading for Black Hill. The visibility became even less and the very wet ground and deep rushes flanking the path meant that I was soon soaked.

The streams are very uninviting

Black Hill trig point in the mist

The flat stone sets forming the path are now being reclaimed by the moors as rushes and heather are engulfing and covering them. It is good that they are there but in a few more years they won’t be much use if no maintenance is carried out. The trig column on the summit of Black Hill loomed out of the mist. It was a strange apparition as it is mounted on a high stone pillar in the middle of black bog.

Like me he was just planning to do 4 days of the Pennine Way. I came to a road at Gill Bridge and followed it up along Gill Lane to a Church just before the village of Cowling. I was off the official route but was finding interesting things to see. One was the amazing 1875 Wesleyan Chapel of four storeys. The map shows the path heading across a footbridge and up the hill to the A6068.

Coming off Black Hill

The Pennine Way lives
down to it's reputation

The path continued on over the top and started down on wet slippery stone flags. Misty hills started to appear in the distance but the stone slabs stopped, leaving a horrible black stinking bog to cross. The path beyond followed along the top of the edge of the fell before starting down at Laddow Rocks to descend down to Crowden Brook. The path wasn't all that good and I was glad to reach the short stretch of field near Crowden and a tarmac road. I'd had enough of the wet moors for one day. The track took me down to the very busy A628 but fortunately I only had to cross it and not walk along it.

A nice path trough pine trees took me to the Torside Reservoir embankment where I crossed over to start the climb after reaching Reaps buildings. The path was steep but steady and took me to Clough Edge where I had a good view down in to Torside Clough. On a good day the view down in to the deep valley must be spectacular but today it was mist and gloom. The path levelled off and was fairly good to follow. I'd planned to camp up ahead near Wildboar Grain as the map shows a spot called John Track well and I was hoping for some decent water. When I reached the area I couldn't find any. The map doesn’t show a specific location for the well. The main path carried straight on but the map showns the Pennine Way route crossing the Clough and heading up Wildboar Grain. I descended, crossed over and set off upwards for a short way before I found a flat spot and reasonably clear water nearby.

Torside Reservoir overflow