B Walk - Darwen Tower & Tockholes with Dorothy Dobson
7 miles (11km) with 800ft (244m) Total Ascent
Meet at Tockholes Information centre. (Sat Nav: BB3 0PA), ready for the usual start time of 10.30am.
From the car park we climb up a zig-zag path to the Tower then dropping steeply to Sunnyhurst wood. As there are a few seats here it is a good spot to have lunch We then have another short climb to Darwen golf course where we have excellent views of the Tower. After walking along country lanes we descend to Tockholes village (where there are more churches than inhabitants) Emerging from the village we cross a field to enter a plantation and back to the centre.
C Walk - Catforth and Canal with Bob Tognarelli
Meet at Catforth. Parking is available on a rough lay-by on School Lane. (Sat Nav: PR4 0HL Map grid Ref: SD483256), ready for the usual start time of 10.30am.
From the lay-by it's a road walk to Black Pole where we pickup paths across fields to Hollowforth Hall. Possibly a lunch spot if not too early. Then it's on to Moon´s Bridge to take the canal towpath to SwillBrook. We now have a few more small fields and a back lane to walk to get back to the start.
There are stiles to climb but they are in reasonable condition, but some will require more of a stretch to get over than others.
To consider: At time of recce Lea Road was a bit of a mess with road changes for the motorway link, and then the road was closed at the Saddle Inn with diversions in place