Darwen Tower V Cartridge Hill

Having often sat outside the Royal Oak at Riley Green and admired the fine view of the Darwen Moors massif, I was pleased when NLN agreed yesterday to visit Cartridge Hill, which I believed to be the highest point on that moor. Various cursory looks at the map had previously suggested that Cartridge is higher than the tower site, but I had never checked it out.

We approached the hill via the Pike, Two Lads, Winter Hill, the Ramp, Belmont, Bucket Dog Farm, the Witton Weavers Way and a number of barbed wire fences.

The top, when we got there (or indeed, probably, always) was unremarkable; no cairn, just a flat area, so we walked about a bit (like you do when you're near one of the poles) to be sure we'd covered the summit.

We returned via Spittlers and a little used route that NLN insisted she knew (but she really only knew the first bit), and back at the barn agreed that it had been a good morning out.

A proper look at an old one inch map this morning revealed that Cartridge Hill (GR 671 199) is 1,317 ft, and whilst I could find no spot height for Darwen Tower, it lies very close to the 1,200 ft contour, suggesting that the former is a good 100 ft higher than the latter ~ not a lot of people know that.

If you've gone metric, I suppose you'd call it 30 metres

EtR