Even though I’ve lived in Bolton since 1988, I’ve never ventured up Great Hill. There is a Wiki article about it here…
On Saturday 11 April 2015 I got up nice and early, packed my rucksack and set off for White Coppice, which is about 12 miles from my house.
Once I walked through the cricket ground, I crossed The Goit and started the easy ascent.
The views East were fabulous…
It was a lovely fresh day, not too hot, not too cold, a ‘Goldilocks’ day…it was great to hear the Skylarks as I meandered along…
Before long, I was at ‘Drinkwaters’
Drinkwaters Farm was so named because of a nearby spring which still flows, rather gently, just below the path from the summit of Great Hill. Not far from the farm ruins is a small, discrete memorial to a local fell runner, Joe Whitter (1939-1991).
Joe, a member of Wigan Phoenix, was one of Lancashire’s true fell running characters well known for his ultra-distance runs over these moors. The spring at Drinkwaters was used regularly by Joe and his companions on Sunday morning runs. The February 1992 Fellrunner magazine contained an obituary where it was observed
“Joe Whitter was one of those essential characters that make fell running what it is. The Anglezarke Moors will be a poorer place without him and he will be sadly missed. Typically, Joe requested his ashes be scattered on the moors he loved, and there are many fell runners who will now be unable to run past Drinkwaters on Great Hill without remembering him.”
Why “Joe’s Cup”?…if you carefully remove a stone or two, all will be revealed!
The path to Great Hill and the summit were easily visible from here…
And before long I was on the top!
The views all around were fantastic! There was a bit of wind chill which made the temperature drop a bit…but the walk was very enjoyable all the same.
One of my photographs taken on this trip was used as a backdrop for the Granada Weather Reports on Monday 13 April 2015.
Fame at last eh?
All in all, a great little walk up Great Hill
