Wed 21 Feb 2018
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Langden 'Castle'
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The BBC weather app
showed light cloud —the reality was brilliant sunshine. After some
hesitation I decided rather late to get out for a walk.
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Looking back from the Water Works
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It has been a long time since I visited Langden Castle so I
parked on the Trough road and set off up past the United Utilities Water catchment works.
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The dam
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After the dam the valley widens with the meandering Langden Brook on the left.
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Langden Brook
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Once on the valley track I
took the top route up to Higher Dry Clough.
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Looking east from the upper track
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Dry Clough (lower)
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A truck was parked at the road summit with beside
it a pile of empty bags. On the fell I could see men working, possibly
spreading lime or something.
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Farmers at work
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Well built shooting butt at Higher Dry Clough
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I continued along the track, now descending, and stopped
for a rest and a snack with the rocks of Holdron Castle up on the right. (I
could also see a footpath on Sykes Fell opposite and decided I should
investigate further at a future time.)
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The track now descends
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Further down the track
I headed off along a fence and managed
to reach Holdron Castle although the dead bracken, the heather, and fallen
boulders made the going difficult. It would be a fight to reach the high crag,
which is detached from the fell side, at any time of the year, and I was near
enough to see that it was not as interesting a place as it appears to be from
below.
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The large crag that is Holdron Castle
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On reaching the junction with the lower track there is another of the memorials to aircrew who lost their lives in crashes on the Bowland Fells.
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One of a number of similar memorials
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I soon reached Langden Castle and watched with
amusement as some sheep competed with one another for a taste of an enjoyable salt lick.
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'My turn to lick!"
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Good shelter if you share with sheep
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On the way back to the Water Works I kept checking the obvious signs of a footpath on the other side of Langden Brook and I am sure that, in spite of
there being none on the map in this position the start of it is shown as a track for part of the way alongside the wood above
the Water Works, which is accessed by a bridge near the Trough road.
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The bridge near the Trough road
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The path that leads on to Bleadale
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I set foot on it and took a photo of the first zig-zag before I returned to the
car. I would like to walk the whole path sometime in the near future, when it's as nice and warm as it was today!
A tiring day, but an interesting one.
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