This summit was activated on Friday 1st August 2003 by Jimmy and myself, following our earlier activation of White Hill SP-006.  We drove from Slaidburn where we had stopped for lunch, and followed the minor roads around in a sort of anticlockwise formation, passing through Newton, Dunsop Bridge, Hareden, Sykes, Marshaw and Lee, before turning right signpost Tarnbrook (cul-de-sac).  We continued to the tiny settlement of Tarnbrook which is just a few farmhouses and doesn't even get a mention on my road atlas.  We found a bit of grass on which to leave the car, and we commenced a long walk from the track starting at SD 587 557.  This track turned out to be a concessionary path through an access area, and made for easy firm underfoot walking.  It climbed gradually for the most part, before starting to wind and climb a little more steeply.  At the end of the track in this direction, we could have turned left and continued to climb the track leading off west and got up to the west end of the summit plateau through the heather, and indeed next time, we will do just this!   Instead, we elected to press on ahead, aiming for the east end of the summit, via bog and peat!  This final section therefore was rather slow going, and thanks go to Keith G0OXV for posting to, and updating the reflector regarding our likely QRV time.

After setting up the FT817 and SOTA Beam, we easily made five contacts, despite using only 500mW from the first CQ call.  We descended by first walking across to the other trig point at the west end of the summit plateau, just 1m lower than that from which we operated. From here, there was a fantastic view out over Morecambe Bay, beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.  We then worked our way down through the heather and crags before picking up the track leading us east and then south back to the car.

Callsign today was MX1SWL/P, the club call of the International Short Wave League (ISWL).  See my radio page or click on the link for further details.  Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 500 mW: