Wildboar Clough - 8.5 miles 4 hrs - 511 metres of accent - Rating: HARD
Lets climb the waterfall she said, it'll be fun she said! 16 miles and 9 hrs of hiking/climbing later we made it back to the car!.....So been the caring and thoughtful people that we are we thought we'd save you a few miles, tears and the risk of ticks and send you where we should of gone!
So the walk starts at Torside carpark £5 parking for the day (cash only no card) Postcode SK13 1JB opposite the sailing club (OS grid ref SK 0686 9834) there is free parking available along the road but it's very limited. From the carpark walk up to join the TPT (Trans Pennine Trail) and head North East after about 5 minutes of walking you will see a stile on your right which leads you towards the ancient woodland and the foot of Wildboar Clough. This alone is a magical place.
Heading up through the woodland you start to gain elevation and the path follows the river up crisscrossing until it finally disappears. This is where the fun starts. As you begin your scramble up the Clough over huge boulders the Clough starts to narrow presenting the first of many waterfalls. These are not for the fainthearted. We climbed this on a hot day in June with no running water in sight. However this can be a force of nature when in full flow! There are several waterfalls on the way up each getting higher and harder to climb. As you reach the hurdle the river widens and begins to level out again as you reach the moor above.
The path disappears here. Keeping the boundary fence on our right we head up and over the moor to re join the path coming up from Torside Clough. We followed this up to Bleaklow head and over to the B-29 Superfortress wreckage and Higher shelf stones trig point. This is where we should of turned around and head back via Hern stones to Bleaklow head!
Once back at Bleaklow Head follow the trail back down to Torside Clough which it's self is a delight! The views towards Crowdon on your way down are breathtaking. There also looks like there are some amazing plunge pools if you follow the river down. Once you reach the bottom you'll rejoin the TPT back towards the carpark.
The route we followed led us over rough moorland terrain and added extra miles to our exhausted legs (you'll need all your energy to get up Wildboar) We recommend instead this route - Full OS route map to down load here
We will return, its a great challenge if you like to get out of your comfort zone. Friends of ours tried this in wet terrain and we would urge caution after any rainfall.
Follow how our day unfolded on Wildboar in our YouTube vid below..
This is brilliant thanks Sam looks like a nice challenging day. I have been planning to visit the crash site very soon so the link to your you tube video is spot on. Me and my buddy are wanting to get on the next B&B’s day out if you could let me know of any dates really looking forward to getting out with the heard. Keep doing what you guys do best.👍🏻
Great post girls, look forward to the next one.