This summit was activated by myself, accompanied by Marianne, Jimmy & Liam on Sunday 23rd May 2004.   

This was the one I had been saving. Its a very nice walk, good pub serving meals at the end, and nothing too strenuous ascent wise. Perfect to bring Marianne along with the boys, providing we had decent weather.

Well, the weather was better than decent, it was scorching. Sunshine and deep blue clear skies making everything look very colourful. We drove from Macc out to Congleton and then out towards Nantwich on the A534. A serious accident had blocked the road though, and it was necessary to turn around and reroute via the A54 and M6. Back on the A534 at Sandbach, we then followed towards Nantwich then Wrexham, and as we saw the Peckforton wooded hills rising on the right-hand side, we checked for the Bickerton Poacher pub on the left. We parked with permission from the bar staff in the pub car park, then headed off on our walk.

We headed left out of the pub and immediately left onto a public footpath. We were taking a longer route to avoid the roads. This path went through fields populated by very timid cows and eventually joined a small road leading back up to the A534. Straight over onto another small road, which led up to the start of the path around the edge of Raw Head farm and up to the summit, which actually occurs at the north-western tip of the plateau. Despite its lowly 227m at the summit, the path leading to it comes pretty close to some exposed sheer edges, and the legs did wobble a bit much to Marianne's amusement. We got to the trig point, and Marianne and the boys went to explore the cave while I set up everything. They returned disappointed about the litter in the cave, and remained on the much more pleasant summit.

First up were Stuart and Keith on Carnedd Llewelyn NW-002, quickly followed by Ken and Christine on SS-228. This was my first 2m FM to a Scottish summit, and came only one day after working my first ever Scottish summit! Regular chasers streamed in (except the Midlands boys - where were you?), plus further summits courtesy of Rob on The Calf NP-013 and Steve, also on NW-002. I got a right ticking-off by one station for whom I kept slowing down the speeding of my voice sending(!), only to be repeatedly told "You are speaking FAR too quickly for the conditions". It took me a full five minutes to complete the QSO, and then he told me "Well if there's nothing else you want from me I need to go...".

After packing away, we continued our walk in the same direction (clockwise) around Raw Head, up to the edge of Bulkeley Hill and dropping down the steeper path that terminates at the Bickerton Poacher. Here we stayed and enjoyed a very nice lunch and a beer in the warm afternoon sun.

This is a very very very nice walk to do, and if anyone wants more detail on the circular route, please email me (click on my photo above).

Thanks to all the following stations worked on this activation: