Red Rose 50. A brief  overview.

The Red Rose 50 is a challenge walk of approximately 50 miles crossing the West Pennine Moors to be completed in 24 hours.

The route climbs over 7,000ft passing many places of interest including 7 reservoirs, supplying the towns and cities with drinking water, a section along the Leeds/Liverpool canal, originally built to enable the transport of heavy goods over the Pennines from the industrial heartlands of West Yorkshire to the docks at Liverpool, and Winter Hill, the highest point of the West Pennines, an area of historical importance with archaeological evidence of human activity from Neolithic times.

It also passes close to Hoghton Tower, a fortified manor house, a couple of other towers, one, Turton Tower, was built in the late Middle Ages as a two-storey stone pele tower and another one, Darwen Tower, which was completed in 1898 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and also to celebrate the victory of the local people for the right to access the moor, and the remains of an ancient cross at Affetside, with an unknown history. Present thinking considers it to be a medieval route marker for Lancashire pilgrims on route to Whalley Abbey.

More historical interest in the form of a megalithic site and scheduled ancient monument on Cheetham Close. The megalith was in good condition until a farmer from Turton took a sledge hammer to the circle in the 1870s.

With refreshment stops at regular intervals, mostly in village halls, there's plenty of places to have a short rest and recharge your batteries with food for most tastes.