I decided to go for a walk to the top of Crown Point via Woodplumpton Road, and was quite surprised to see so many common spotted orchids growing on the embankments on the way.
On reaching the first cattle grid I decided to take the route by Copy Clough, instead of the boring main road so over the stile I went, taking a downward route parallel with the golf course. The cotton grass was beginning to flower everywhere.
The path is very indistinct but there are markers every few yards or so. On reaching the very bottom, even though we had not had much rain for a few weeks, Copy Clough was stilll rather boggy so I trod on the bullrushes to crosss it very gingerly without getting wet feet. I enjoyed seeing meadow pipits parachuting down.
After crossing the clough it was uphill all the way, taking a zigzag route until it joined an equally zigzag path leading to a plantation of tree in remembrance of folks loved ones. Here you can have a tree planted in soneones name. By that time there was a steady drizzle and on reaching the car park the visibility was pretty poor. I could just about makeout the great bulk of Ingleborough up to the north, to the west the coastal line was very indistinct, certainly no sign of Blackpool Tower, however to the south east Stoodley Pike was in view.
This is a view looking towards Firemans Helmet on a clear day.
I decided to walk back on the main road and am glad I did because after just a short way I heard a cricket in the grass, the first one Ive heard since I was in Tunisia about 7 years ago. I could hear skylarks, a sound not very much heard these days, and 2 curlews kept circling around low. A hawk of some sort was chasing a flock of swallows. The lambs that were so tiny in march are now almost as big as their mothers, still trying to feed offf their mums but the ewes shoving them away as if to say, " you are big boys now".
By the time I got to Glenview Road it was fine again, the walk had taken me 2 hours.
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