Combs Moss

This walk was done on 07 July 2011
Distance: 7.69 Miles
Time 3.11 hours
Weather: Wet, very wet


View Combs Moss in a larger map. Walked in a anti clockwise direction

I was glad I only got a little car as I drove to find somewhere to park

Once I stated up the path onto the moor I got a good view of Combs reservoir and of the climbers playground

The reason I picked this one was the Iron age fort in one corner of the moor,  I did not know really what to expect.

Nothing to see here, please move along.

Looks to me like it's man made.

I was a little confused as to why there was a ditch and two ramparts but the above article states that there were 3 phases of build, my money goes on the medieval build.

If you wondering why the man made defences only run down one side of the fort it's because mother nature has helped on the other two sides.

This walk is a very easy one with very little need to navigate, It's basically keep the wall to one side and the drop to the other

It's the first time I came across a moor that is totally walled in, more on this later. As I was snapping away with my camera I saw this

 I think this is a great visualisation of the translation from moorland to farmland.

A bit futher along I cam across some grouse huts.

Common enough on moor land  but heaven forbid the local gentry have to walk up to them, when they can charge their 4x4 up there

A poor picture showing the track up to the huts

Walk you buggers is what I say.

 Even though I said this walk was an easy one, you still could not drift off into cloud cuckoo land. At times one miss placed step would lead to a rapid decent for quite a few metres. A couple of examples:

A vertical 20metres here

Above Flint Clough

Next up was my lunch stop, time to get out of the wind, This will do.

Did I say it was a wet day? oh yes it was. It was good to finally walk over soggy wet peat moor why?
one all the rain will do the fauna and flora good but it will also help to stop this

This must have been either very early this year or more likely last year but as you can see green shoots are taking over again, funny how you can still smell the burn.

Next point to note was Flint clough The picture above shows how close you get to the edge, this next one is looking back across it.

The central rock face is the drop off the path

I did spend some time trying to get the beauty of this clough on film but did not manage it, I could not get the steepness of it or catch the character of the stream, best of the bunch

I did come across one example of when you set your mind to a job nothing can stop you.

This web stretched across a pool, which I just could not see how the spider had put the first thread there without swimming like a fish, the position of it also looks like it would be washed away with the next big surge and the way it was raining it would be along soon. But it was there and it did look good, again photo did not catch it to well.

The walk across this side of the moor was to be honest boring, once I got to the trig point I had a coffee and a look around. From that point I could see four major quarries.

 I know some people moan about the quarrying that happends around here but if you look in this picture:

You can see it's been going on in this area for quite a few years. I dont mind it so much ( my first Job was working in a quarry) because of my  view of the environment (and one day when I'm really bored I will post that up).

A final km back to the fort with its ramparts

 

Just when I thought I had done I came across

Now I know farmers and some of them can be pedantic buggers but really was there a need to fence over this rock? could not the rock be an obstacle in its self?

And finally did I say it was a wet day?

This was dry when I set off three hours earlier

I did enjoy this walk but I found it boring apart from the fort and flint clough. there was no navigation issues all you had to do was follow the wall and mostly that was of an even contour, none the less it's always good to get out.

Oh did I say it was a wet day.