Walking in the West Pennine Moors: a complete planning guide

What is Walking on the West Pennine Moors?

Walking on the West Pennine Moors is a Cicerone guidebook by Terry Marsh describing 30 circular day walks across 233km² (90 square miles) of moorland and reservoir country between Chorley, Bolton, Horwich, Ramsbottom, Haslingden, Oswaldtwistle and Darwen. The walks are grouped into four geographic sections: Rivington and Anglezarke, Roddlesworth and Darwen, Turton and Entwistle, and Ramsbottom, Hoddlesden and Haslingden Grane, giving structured coverage of the whole area rather than a scattered selection of routes.

This is gritstone country, dissected by wooded cloughs and marked by skyline landmarks such as Rivington Pike, the Peel Monument on Holcombe Moor and Jubilee Tower (Darwen Tower) on Darwen Moor. Almost the entire area functions as water catchment, and United Utilities, successor to the North West Water Authority, owns around 40 per cent of the land. Unlike Pennine moorland further north, the West Pennine Moors are not managed for grouse shooting, which has spared them the same "access aggravation" seen in areas like the Peak District.

This particular stretch of moorland has a distinctive access history. Long before the well-known 1932 mass trespass at Kinder Scout, the West Pennine Moors saw organised trespasses in the late 1800s, including a gathering of around 10,000 people in 1896, plus court proceedings on Winter Hill and Darwen Moor to keep rights of way open. According to Marsh, the West Pennine Moors were genuinely first in Britain's fight for countryside access, a claim not often credited in more general accounts of the access movement. This planning guide answers the most common questions walkers have before setting out. For complete stage-by-stage route descriptions and mapping, see the Walking on the West Pennine Moors guidebook.

The 30 routes at a glance: how the West Pennine Moors divides

The guidebook's 30 walks are organised into four geographic areas, each centred on its own cluster of reservoirs and moorland blocks:

• Rivington and Anglezarke (Walks 1–12): the best-known corner of the moors, home to Rivington Pike, Winter Hill, Great Hill and Spitler's Edge, Rivington Country Park and the Anglezarke and Yarrow reservoirs
• Roddlesworth and Darwen (Walks 13–17): centred on the wooded Roddlesworth valley and Darwen Tower (Jubilee Tower), above Blackburn and Darwen
• Turton and Entwistle (Walks 18–24): the Turton, Wayoh, Entwistle and Jumbles reservoirs north of Bolton, along with Turton Tower and Longworth Clough
• Ramsbottom, Hoddlesden and Haslingden Grane (Walks 25–30): the remote Grane valley west of Haslingden, plus Holcombe Moor, the Peel Monument, and the Irwell Valley

Each section can be walked independently, and the geographic grouping makes it straightforward to base a series of day walks around a single valley or reservoir cluster.

Eight of the best walks on the West Pennine Moors

Who is Walking on the West Pennine Moors suitable for?

The 30 walks in this guidebook cover a genuine spread of ability levels. Shorter valley walks around the reservoirs at Jumbles, Wayoh and Rivington are well within reach of anyone used to ordinary countryside walking, including families and less experienced navigators, since paths tend to be well used and close to visitor centres. The longer moorland routes, particularly those crossing Great Hill, Winter Hill and the higher blanket bog sections, demand a reasonable level of fitness and confident map and compass skills, since paths shown on the map are not always visible on the ground.

Dog walkers are generally well catered for around the reservoir circuits, though care is needed on higher ground during bird breeding season given the area's importance for moorland species such as golden plover, dunlin and short-eared owl.

How difficult is walking in the West Pennine Moors?

The guidebook rates the walking as easy to moderate, and none of the 30 routes is technically difficult in the way an exposed scramble or Grade 2/3 mountain route would be. The genuine challenge here is underfoot conditions rather than technical terrain: the moors are used as water catchment and are wet, boggy and often muddy outside the driest periods, so route-finding across peat bog and rough grassland requires more care than the modest heights suggest. Winter Hill, at 456m (1496ft), is the high point of the area, and routes crossing its shoulder or Spitler's Edge are the most demanding in the collection.

When is the best time to walk in the West Pennine Moors?

• Spring and autumn: generally the most comfortable seasons underfoot, with drier ground conditions than winter and good visibility for the skyline landmarks
• Summer: long daylight hours suit the longer moorland routes, though the peat can still hold water after rain
• Winter: walking is possible year-round, but boggy sections become harder going, and short daylight hours limit the longer routes; take extra care and be winter-wise if snow lies on higher ground
• Because the entire area is water catchment, wet and muddy conditions can occur at any time of year, even in what looks like a dry spell elsewhere in Lancashire

What accommodation is available near the West Pennine Moors?

The West Pennine Moors sit within easy reach of Bolton, Blackburn, Chorley, Darwen and Haslingden, all of which offer a full range of accommodation from B&Bs to hotels, making it straightforward to base a series of day walks from any of these towns rather than needing to stay directly on the moors. United Utilities also operates four information centres with refreshment facilities, at Rivington, Jumbles Country Park, Roddlesworth and Clough Head, and Haslingden Grane, useful for breaking up a day's walking. For full details of accommodation options in each valley, see the guidebook's appendix.

Getting to and from the West Pennine Moors

The moors are unusually accessible for an upland area, threaded by valley roads and surrounded by towns on every side. Blackburn and Bolton both have mainline rail stations with regular services from Manchester and Preston, making rail-based day trips straightforward for routes in the Roddlesworth, Darwen and Turton sections. Chorley station serves the Rivington and Anglezarke walks well, and Ramsbottom and Haslingden are both accessible by bus from Bury and Blackburn respectively for the walks around Haslingden Grane. Because the walks are circular, no return transport logistics are needed beyond getting back to your original start point.

What is the access history of the West Pennine Moors?

The West Pennine Moors have a distinctive place in the story of the British right-to-roam movement. Long before the 1932 mass trespass at Kinder Scout, which is usually credited as the founding moment of the access campaign, the West Pennine Moors saw their own organised trespasses in the late 1800s, including a gathering of around 10,000 people in 1896, alongside court proceedings on both Winter Hill and Darwen Moor over the right to keep paths open. Much of the moorland became freely accessible under the right-to-roam provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and today the same paths that were once disputed in court form the backbone of the guidebook's 30 walks.