Walking on the West Pennine Moors. Terry Marsh
of the walk, beside the school. Walk down to the main road and turn right to return to the car park.
WALK 4
Rivington Pike
| Start/Finish | Car park, opposite Horwich and Blackrod High School (SD634128) |
| Distance | 5km (3 miles) |
| Height gain | 230m (755ft) |
| Terrain | Farmland; moorland; woodland – good paths throughout |
The tower on Rivington Pike is a conspicuous landmark, and is also included in Walk 3. Here, the ascent is rather more direct, and for most of the climb, follows the course taken during the annual Rivington Pike Fell Race, which the winning runners contrive to complete in around 17 minutes – that’s up and down!
Leave the car park by walking out to the road and turning right to pass the high school. Having crossed the entrance to the school, take the next turning on the left, a narrow, surfaced lane that runs up beside the school.
When you meet two wide, stony tracks branching off to the left, ignore them, and stay with the surfaced track that swings right and climbs towards Higher Knoll Farm. Ignore the turning to the farm when you get there and, instead, continue up-field, climbing a sloping farm pasture for about 500m to meet, at a gate, a broad, stony track directly below Rivington Pike.
Rivington Pike from the edge of Wilderswood
Through the gate, bear right a little, but then swing left, still on a broad, stony track. Pass through a metal gate and follow the rough track beyond. When the track forks, you have the choice of making a beeline for the top of the pike, or of bearing right and following the stony track to the far side of the hill and ascending from there – the choice is yours. For information about Rivington Pike, see Walk 3.
From the top of the pike, take a constructed path descending roughly in a northwesterly direction, and follow the track below until you rejoin the lower track at a fence barrier. Turn left now, but before you reach the gate at the top of the farm field, branch sharply right at a clear path junction (gate pillars) to continue descending. This path drops easily, and at the edge of the Terraced Gardens woodland, swings round to the left.
A short way further on, while the choice exists to keep straight on (the way Walk 3 concludes), turn sharply to the right again, and continue descending until you intercept a lateral track. Now turn left, and before long pass a metal gate, with a broad track running off to the left. Ignore this, and keep forward, soon reaching the main Rivington road. Cross the road and turn left onto a path beside it that will guide you back to the start.
WALK 5
Rivington Country Park
| Start/Finish | Car park, opposite Horwich and Blackrod High School (SD634128) |
| Distance | 5.5km (3.4 miles) |
| Height gain | 96m (315ft) |
| Terrain | Stony paths and graded tracks |
The seemingly innocuous hills and moors of Rivington Country Park nevertheless proved demanding enough to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games outdoor cycling events. This tour of the park is largely confined to the former estates of Lord Leverhulme, visiting the replica of Liverpool Castle ruins, and two outstanding cruck barns of some antiquity. On the way, we also pass Rivington Hall, sometime home of Lord Leverhulme, whose influence was considerable both here in Lancashire and much further afield.
The walk begins from a car park just off the Rivington road, opposite Horwich and Blackrod High School. From the rear of the car park, set off along a broad path through light woodland. Ignore any diverging pathways, and press on to walk parallel with a much broader, stony track on your right. Do not join this track – just stay parallel with it for about 80m, and then climb briefly to the left, to walk alongside a wooden fence, later becoming a fence of tall iron railings.
Just after Lower Rivington Reservoir comes into view, pass through a gap in the railings and bear left, down towards the waterline and then along the water’s edge. When the path rises sharply, climb with it to reach the walls of Liverpool Castle. Go round to the front of the castle to gain access and explore this unusual edifice, but then return to the stony path to continue the walk.
The original Liverpool Castle was probably built in the 13th century under the orders of William de Ferrers (c1168–c1247), the Fourth Earl of Derby, and a favourite of King John (1199–1216). The castle was built to protect King John’s new port of Liverpool, and was sited at the top of present-day Lord Street, the highest point in the city and overlooking the Pool. The castle was built on top of a plateau, which had been specially constructed, and a moat around it was carved from solid rock. Here at Rivington you see a full-size replica, built in the early 1900s for the First Viscount Leverhulme, and based on a partly conjectural reconstruction of the castle prepared by EW Cox in 1890. In effect, this is a replica of a ruin, not a ruin of a replica, although it was never fully completed, funds drying up on the death of Lord Leverhulme.
Liverpool Castle
The route continues through woodland, predominantly of beech and sycamore. Eventually, the path moves away from the reservoir, and once more runs alongside a wooden fence, now with Rivington Pike in view ahead.
By following the fence as it loops around a conservation area, you come to a fork in the track. Here, one option swings off in a wide curve to the right, and the other, the way to go, bears left, still with a fence alongside, and now with intermittent red waymark arrows. The path soon returns to the edge of the reservoir.
Stay alongside the fence as it once more turns away from the reservoir, and passes through a pronounced dip. On the other side of the dip, stay with the fence for a little longer, but only until you can bear right (at the first fork) on a clear, stony path that leads into the edge of the car park at Great House Barn. Walk up the surfaced lane to the left of the barn.
During 2008, a ‘Go Ape’ attraction was built here, in spite of local opposition.
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