Musbury Valley
Tales from a Lancashire lass
The Hike
Our walk began with a short climb along a stoney trail, taking us gradually up through bending and grassy walkways, to the bottom skirt of Musbury Tor Hill. The hill stands proud and prominent, a king looking down upon its small surrounding villages; it is seemingly flat upon the tops but collared with cliff-like edges, drop-offs and winding paths up towards its tops. As we followed the path around the hills side, guided by the leaning fences, the terrain fell away on our right, opening us up onto wide panoramic views above the modest village of Helmshore. Onwards from here, we arrived onto an ocean of tall golden reeds, swaying lazily in the wind and making way for us as we waded on through.
We reached a many-pronged fork where a few different paths could be taken, but ours took us off to the left and onto a slowly inclining hill side - from here, we could not see what awaited on the other side. As we continued along the path, the incredible scene began to creep into our eye-line. We were suddenly greeted by views of tremendous, emerald hillsides, decorated with feathered ferns, etched with trail lines and with a deep running valley through the middle. As the path continued, we found ourselves being taken deeper through the ferns and into the Jurassic landscape, hopping over a narrowed part of the river, which glittered beneath the belting sun and trickled gently down through the valley. This was easily our favourite part of the walk and honestly, it is difficult to articulate just how stunning a sight it was.
We followed onwards, up the path as it wound itself around the side of another hill, taking us upwards again onto higher ground and along to the Holcombe Moors. After a little climb, we reached the top of the moor and again were rewarded with spectacular views of our surrounding towns, villages and hills. However, from here, things got a little ropey. We now found ourselves on a monotonous, tricky, long and almost surreal stretch of walking through boggy marshlands along the top of the moors. Surreal, firstly, because we realised we were on military firing range land and secondly, because all we saw, for what felt like miles, was an old burnt out banger of a car, isolated upon the moor. As we trudged along, we could feel our feet sink into spongy, wet terrain and sludge, which continued for a while and became increasingly uncomfortable as the viscous and biting winds wrapped around us.
After this unpleasant blip along the route, we eventually came down onto more certain and steady terrain down a hillside, passing a couple of time-worn ruins and finding a spot to sit and eat, out of the wind and enveloped in glorious sunshine. The relief of warmth fell upon us as we sat, tucking into our sandwiches, looking out over Helmshore once again. Once re-energized from our lunch, we quickly perked up and continued on along the trail until we reached a weathered stone wall; here, you can continue over the wall and alongside a quarry but we chose to head down to our right, following the path down and along the hillside, through to the farmlands.
We eventually reached a strangely cambered path which ran down through the pasture - raised down the middle and lined with precarious rocks, but sandwiched between the boggy pools either side, all disguised by tall reeds and grass. As we headed down along this tricky path, we were met by many sheep, some of which were completely unphased by our presence and watched intently as we passed them by. An ongoing conversation between our woolly friends filled the air as they bleeted loudly, and almost comically, to one another. This kept us amused as we approached the final style, bringing us out to the final point of our walk.
This walk was a totally mixed bag from the start with chapters of incredible scenery, beautiful pastures, lush greenery and valleys all juxtaposed with the vast, wet, dull, boggy marshlands atop the moors. If you enjoy varied terrains, this walk definitely offers such and the only advice we would have, is to have the right footwear and take along some layers for those higher points where the wind whips you into a bit of a chilly spell - even on a warm day!
- Charlotte Cuff
