Twenty six members turned up at Tosside Community Hall, on a lovely sunny day for a walk through the edge of Gisburn Forest to Whelpstone Crag. The walk commenced up Bailey Lane, past the sawmill, which was partly destroyed by fire twelve months ago. We then continued on past fir trees, some of which had recently blown down during the gale force winds a few weeks earlier and then continued to a stile on the right to Heath Farm and onwards to the area of recently harvested fir trees. The ground on leaving Heath Farm was a bit marshy, but despite the wet weather of previous weeks, was not too bad. Nobody did a nose dive into the ground!
On leaving the forest on to Holden Moor Whelpstone Crag came into view, looking quite majestic in the winter sunshine. Approaching the crag we had views of Long Preston and Rathmell and the river Ribble winding its way through Rathmell bottoms. After a not too steep climb up to the trig point at 371 metres, the vista opened up before us: the three peaks and in the far distance the Langdales we thought were visible. After a short stop, we continued on our way downhill towards Whelpstone Lodge, where we encountered a variety of chickens, ducks and geese! As the light changed and Whernside and Ingleborough disappeared from view, Pen--y-Ghent looked quite splendid. We continued on our return journey through Higher, Middle and Lower Brayshaw farms to join the Long Gill Road, until the turn left to Stud Ford Farm and the Slaidburn to Long Preston Road, and uphill back to Tosside Community Hall.