Four of us set off from UP at UT, with one straggler left to don his shoes and catch us up en route.
BREAKING NEWS -
Blackrod Beast Back Behind Bars (Instead of leaning on them)
On the loose from his native territory, the Beast of Blackrod is briefly contained before running amok over the bogs of the Winter Hill Massif
On the way up to Two Lads
The Straggler has not only caught up but overtaken some by Two Lads, but no stamina as he departs soon after!
This was my blip for yesterday, if you click on the comments you can see that one viewer suggested that the image would have been improved if the two ‘loiterers’ at the summit cairn were removed!
Two of the many abandoned farmsteads looking at the map I think the one above is Simms and below, Old Rachel’s
After the Bomber Memorial, EtU and JtE headed home to fulfil pressing engagements, leaving IceKev and me to a tour of some of the ancient burial mounds in the area.
On the way to Pikestones, we witnessed the extensive fire damage caused by the moorland fires earlier in the year.
The Pikestones is one of only two known Neolithic burial monuments in Lancashire (the other being a long barrow on Skelmore Heads near Ulverston). According to the notice board the Pikestones’ cairn was originally roughly 45 metres long by 15 metres wide and orientated north-south. A single chamber was located under the higher end to the north.
We decided it was a morning to visit the other Bronze Age burial chamber of 'Round Loaf' on Anglezarke Moor. Apparently, it’s the largest of its type in the North West of England, dating back 3500 years, and I don’t know why I didn’t get a photo of it, except that it was a fairly tussocky direct approach we took! This Round Barrow probably contains the cremated remains of the leader of a tribe which once made this lonely spot their home, but hasn’t been excavated to date.
Pikestones - Well you have to, don’t you?
On the way back to the cars, we found a very useful path which took us from the fire road at a point where we joined it from the path we sometimes take on a diagonal to the stile, by the trees when heading to the Bomber Memorial (opp direction). This path was well marked and cuts out the long curve back towards Dangerous Corner. The path goes directly across low ground and then up to the road at DC.
Above is a very nicely appointed marker post provided by the Peak and Northern Footpath Society, which I have never heard of, but I’m sure is very googleable, when time permits. Looking on the map this is pointing to Higher Hempshaw – so one of them has got it wrong. There’s also a Lower Hempshaw, this must be right as you can clearly see Spitler’s Edge making it easy to locate on the map. The directional arrows on the other sides were to Simms, and Moses Cocker and I can’t remember the other, but the crossroads is again clearly identifiable on the OS map. We took the direction of Moses Cocker.
All in all, the remaining two completed 12.5m and 2012ft of climbing in warm humid conditions and no rain – a joy to be out 
NLN
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