Glen Howe Park to Spout House Hill

A view from the public footpath at Spout House Hill

 

My exploration of the principal stone built features in Glen Howe Park had only taken half an hour and, for the next leg of my walk, I followed the footpath that runs westward to Benteholme Farm and where the only point of geological interest that I noted is the wooded skyline formed by the escarpment of Rough Rock to the south.

 

A panoramic view of the Rough Rock escarpment on the skyline

 

Continuing up to Tinker Brook House, the only sign of the underlying Huddersfield White Rock were the loose boulders exposed by the Tinker Brook and I carried on to Brightholmlee Road, where I reached a stile with steps made out of large squared blocks of gritty sandstone.

 

A stile at Brightholmlee Road

Turning up Hob Lane and passing Hob Lane House, the track turns into a path that becomes increasingly difficult to walk along and I didn’t stop to take note of the characteristics of the sandstone used in the boundary wall alongside me.

A large boulder of Rough Rock

As the path suddenly rose up to Spout House, which is set on the edge of a plateau of the Rough Rock, I passed a large boulder next to the boundary wall and some heras fencing on my left hand side. At this point, I decided to check the location of the path on the printed screenshot of the 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map that I had with me.

 

A view down to Bent Hills on the skyline

Since leaving Glen Howe Park, although the public footpath had so far been quite easy to follow, I had reached a place where two paths meet but I did not see a signpost. With the path turning 90 degrees at Spout House, I continued for a few metres and then stopped to get my bearings from Hob Lane House, which I could see below me.

 

A landslip below the escarpment of Rough Rock

Even from such a distance, I could see an area of ground in the hillside below the escarpment of Rough Rock on the skyline, which looks very different to the surrounding grassland. Zooming in with my Canon Powershot G7X Mark II, I was later very interested to discover that this disturbed bracken covered land coincides with the area marked as a landside on the 2008 edition of the geological map for the Barnsley district.

 

A stone stile at Spout House Hill

Almost immediately, I then encountered a well crafted stone stile that obviously marked the next junction of public footpaths that were on my map, but I was very disconcerted to discover that the two circular way markers had been deliberately vandalised.

 

A large discarded block of Rough Rock

On the left hand side of the path, beyond the drystone wall, I was interested to see a large discarded block of quarried sandstone that had been turned on its side, revealing the bedding planes, and I then continued along the grassy path, which showed no signs of being used. 

A public footpath skirting Spout House Hill