My quest to find the centre of Great Britain

This walk starts from the village of Dunsop bridge where you can park your car next to the 100000th BT payphone that was opened by Sir Ranulph Fiennes himself.. The plan was to try and find the Whitendale and Brennand hanging stones which are supposed to be the centre of the British Isle, The route leaves the village and follows the small brook upstream and onto the moors.

The weather was quite cold but the sky was blue enough and you very quickly leave civilisation behind as you follow the water board service road.

The hills round here are mostly boggy peat and are the sponge that feeds the surrounding reservoirs.

The views up here in the forest of Bowland are like no other you are likely to see and the area seems to be seldom visited.

I had a map and ignoring the no dogs signs I quickly came across an obvious pointer to my destination.

The weather turned typically misty and following a bearing became tricky as the ground underfoot throws you first one way and then the other..I also had to negotiate big peaty scars where the streams had eroded away the topsoil..These detours can wreck your intended path so try and keep an eye on some thing in the distance so you can regain your bearing.

Out of the mist appeared some stones which fitted the bill I was looking for so I had a butty and admired the mist for a while..Whether these are the Brennand or Whitendale stones I know not.

From here I decided to make for the trig point on Whins Brow,its about two miles I guess but the walking is bloody hard work.You have to cross small valleys with steep sides where you have to grab lungs full of air and the surrounding heather to drag yourself up,

The ground is real hard work and when I saw a fence heading the right way I made a bee line for it and used it as a handrail all the way to the top.

On the way up I saw a farmer bouncing and rocking his way across the moor on his quad bike, it looked very uncomfortable indeed. By the time I reached the trig point I was huffing and puffing like a good un'

The tarn is Brennand tarn where I found a geocache  and sat and admired the views into the empty distance..I once read that the Queen comes up here shooting and as she owns most of the land she can do as she pleases I guess..

From here I grabbed another handrail fence and stumbled slipped and slithered my way back to Dunsop bridge for a brew.