ALTHOUGH the Dovestone Reservoir and Saddleworth Edges was a high grade walk, with 11.5 miles and 2,500 feet of climbing in total, we decided to offer two speeds of walk over the same route. This resulted in 21 club members enjoying a challenging, spectacular walk, which is only just an hour's drive from Warrington.

The weather was overcast as we set off along the western edge of the large Dovestone reservoir, along a wide easy track, which carried on north and then east along the next two reservoirs Yeoman Hey, and Greenfield. The faster group of five soon pulled away, as the 16 watched for dippers along the Greenfield Brook, and then began climbing up Birchen Clough. We crossed over rocks to the eastern side when it became impassable and then had to cross again later. This section needed some careful foot placements on very narrow tracks, and took time in order to allow everyone to go at their own pace. We were delighted, with the pretty valley which, although tricky, was alongside water tumbling over the gritstone boulders , and a waterfall which dropped about 20 feet. We had a coffee stop just above the waterfall on some convenient flat stones, and one of the second group joined the faster group there.

We carried on along the left hand side of the brook with the ground becoming muddier and less steep, and crossed over, traversing up the bank to reach the high edge of the valley and here we felt the force of a cold wind. Along the edges are huge gritstone blocks, some of which are piled precariously, it seemed, on top of each other. We rounded Ravenstones Brow, and reached Ashway Rocks at 1,483feet, before coming across a memorial to a politician who had been killed ' by the accidental discharge of a gun'. From here we headed south, crossed Ashway Gap Clough, and turned west to Dean Rocks and Great Dove Stone Rocks, 1,477feet, then keeping Dove Stone Moss on our left we headed south and crossed Charnel Clough, finding a sheltered place after this, to eat our lunch.

We carried on south and west down to Chew Reservoir access road, where eight took the opportunity to leave the walk there. The remaining seven in the second party climbed up to the reservoir and along the edge, west to Hoarstone Edge, 1,631feet, passing The Trinicle, which comprises of three rock ' pillars' with a view of Dovestone reservoir captured between two of the rocks. No-one wanted to have a picture taken of themselves on The Trinicle, as some do, but some pictures were certainly taken of the stunning view through it. We dropped down to Wimberry Stones which gave the impression of limestone pavement, and protruded well over the edge of Wimberry Moss. We stopped again for a while but could see 'weather' coming towards us, and as we got up to move on, the rain came to join the wind, and this made the last 90 minutes of the walk, very unpleasant. The faster group finished an hour ahead of us, and escaped the worst of this bad weather, as did those who left at Chew. Because it was so unpleasant, a right hand track was chosen to get down as soon as possible, rather than going left and up to Alphin Pike, 1539feet. We reached a junction with The Oldham Way, and got down to a road, then missed out the section through the wood to get down to Bradbury Lane, which led directly back to the car park, and our cars. A group of very wet people met the others in the Royal George, to warm up before heading home. Although the weather had spoiled the end of the walk, all agreed that it was a challenging and enjoyable visit to the gritstone edges of Greater Manchester.

Thanks to Kerry Mutch for leading the 'advance party'.