We had tried to activate this summit a couple of weeks earlier following the Pendle Hill activation, using an ascent from Shawforth.  However, we couldn't work out exactly where we were on the A671, and by the time we got our bearings we were out of time.  In the meantime, Alan M1EYO suggested a longer route, but with considerably less by way of ascent and descent.  So on April 26th, 2003, we parked in the lay-by on the A681 (Bacup to Todmorden road) at SD 890 243 as advised by Alan.  We then took the Rossendale Way path to Freeholds Top - big mistake!  This was a real pain across waterlogged fields with almost unavoidable large deep dirty puddles all the way, broken stone walls and tangled barbed wire blocking most of the intended pathway (which was also waterlogged).  This took absolutely ages!  We should have taken the lower, slightly more easterly Limers Gate path, which is a tractor track all the way!   Suffice to say we came back this way!  We activated from just behind the stone wall (behind me in the photo below) where there were stones suitable for sitting on.   Callsign today was MX1SWL/P, club callsign of the International Short Wave League (ISWL) - see my radio page for more details.  See below for the stations worked.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts: