Cowm Reservoir is a popular and well known circuit, but there's a whole world above, where quarrymen toiled extracting flagstones and slabs. Here you can wander along an airy tramway and marvel at massive rocks set amid a silence that is serene.
LOCATION: 4 miles north of Rochdale
START: Whitworth Waterski Centre signed from A671. Pay & Display car park on dam
Grid ref: SD882187 Postcode: OL128BH
DISTANCE: 4 miles
GRADE: Moderate, with some very rough walking
TIME: 2.5 hours
MAP: Explorer OL - South Pennines Landranger 109
REFRESHMENTS: Pack a flask
EN ROUTE: Ab Top, Thurns Head, Cowclough, Walstead Clough, Ragstone Brow, Scout Moor Tramway
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News