thousandmilesblog | Walk Post 051 - Watching the Sun Set in Rochdale (Reply)

Date of Walk: 10/08/10
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 19:15
Start location: Spring Inn, Rochdale
Walk length: 5.02 miles
Weather conditions: Cloudy, occasional showers

Details:
The last evening walk of the year, the first and only one I managed to make it to. This one was enough to make me wish I'd done many more, but there's always next year. Starting from the Spring Inn in Rochdale, we passed through a housing estate and onto part of one of the national cycle trails. We left this close to a number of large warehouses to cross a footbridge over the M62. This led us to a path past a farm house which had an old well outside, and a stile with brambles snaking out at head height that snagged my ear on the way over. We then continued along a path, which got very muddy and overgrown, over a stile into a field. Further up we could see an area surrounded by a high fence where horses were grazing. We walked around the outside of this fence, and the horses seemed very interested in us. One in particular got quite agitated.

As we walked up the hill alongside the fence, it then became clear that the path was going to take us through the field the horses were in. I don't mind horses as long as I'm not riding them (too far to fall really), but I'm always a bit wary of large animals I don't know, which I think is just sensible. I don't like disturbing them where it's not necessary. There were two foals in the field, which added to my worry a bit in that respect. Most of the horses didn't really seem to take much notice of us when they realised we hadn't come to feed them, but the one who had seemed agitated earlier really wasn't happy with us crossing the field. I felt quite sorry for it. Anyway, we emerged at the other side of the field with us and the horses all unscathed, which was good. We went out towards a lane, but then turned back up the hill through another field which was also full of horses. These ones seemed a bit calmer, and two in particular were quite interested, probably trying to mug us for mints. Nobody had any, but we obligingly scratched and petted, especially when we were on the other side of the gate at the far end. I think having a gate between you and horses tends to make both sides relax a bit when you don't really know each other.

We carried on further up the hill, as the sun began to set. The views were wonderful. We walked along bits of the Oldham Way and Rochdale Way, through grassy meadows and muddy fields grazed by more horses, before descending to meet Rochdale Road. We went a short way down the road, then turned back onto the hills along a lane, passing quite a few farm cottages and later joining a footpath that went through a very overgrown patch. We emerged at the top of the fields with the horses in that we'd come up through earlier, and went back down the same way. As we walked back towards the start point, several of us were quite a long way ahead, and we got back to the car park a bit sooner than the others. We'd started out a bit later than expected, and it was nearly dark just as we were reaching the bottom of the fields with horses in, so we finished the walk in darkness. Thankfully most of the remaining bit was well lit, and there was some welcome and excellent hospitality waiting at the end.