Winter Hill & Two Lads Sunset


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30th November 2025

Overview

Ascent:	610 Feet - 182 Metres
Summits:	Winter Hill - Two Lads
Weather:	Intermittent Sunshine Through High Cloud. Feeling Brisk Where Exposed. Highs of 7°C Lows of 3°C
Parking:	Parking Spaces, Wilderswood
Area:	West Pennine Moors
Miles:	4
Walking With:	On My Own
Ordnance Survey:	Explorer 287
Time Taken:	1 Hours 15 Minutes
Route:	Wilderswood - Rotary Way - Winter Hill - Rotary Way - New Path Through Rivington Moor - Two Lads - Wilderswood

Map and Photo Gallery

Winter Hill transmitter seen beyond Two Lads 7°C 14:45pm

No fells for me this weekend and what a weekend I've missed out on with more snow arriving overnight I'm sure David and Rod have filled their boots pardon the pun. I had spent last night meeting with old work mates who twice a year we arrange afternoon/evening drinks. I'd missed the summer outing and thought I'd better make the winter gathering after all, we go back to the early 1990's. After a well deserved lie in I made the most of the morning sunshine and took Brad and Holly out for a couple of hours, had a quick lunch then drove out to Wilderswood to walk Winter Hill summit and return via Two Lads.

Views over Wilder's Moor towards Rivington Pike.

I knew I was in for a treat with the contrasting light from the start demonstrated here with the rich colours of the moorland grass set against a distant Rivington Pike in shade.

Gathering cloud over Two Lads.

I was really pushing time as you can see by how low the sun was only giving myself just enough time to make it to Winter Hill and back this afternoon.

Winter Hill transmitter from Rotary Way.

I was amazed by how many folk were about this afternoon with a good dozen ahead of me all of whom would would head back via the new slabbed path once they reached the transmitter station.

Looking back on Two Lads.

Within the space of twenty minutes I lost the sunshine to cloud filling in extensively alos causing a drop in temperature.

Views over Smithills Moor towards Bolton and Manchester.

Its looking much clearer to the south.

Making the detour around the transmitter station.

Despite this being a Sunday and very close to sunset workers installing new cables to the mast were hard at work feeding new cable through what sounded like a ratchet system. On nearing the transmitter station I hooked a right and detroured around the station onto the boggy moorland before linking back up with Rotary Way about ten minutes later.

Winter Hill summit trig point.

There was still twenty five minutes until sunset but due to the build up of cloud towards the west I lost light rapidly making it feel much later than it actually was.

Sunset 16:03pm

The workman were still at it on my return and with about ten minutes before sunset I thought the sun might break out below the cloud in some form of spectacular fashion but it did the exact oposite and descended into cloud without so much as a show of light.

Sunset over Lancashire.

Feeling I'd been robbed of my sunset I continued towards Two Lads and within the space of ten minutes or so the cloud began to clear and I got my last show of light even if it wasn't as spectacular as I'd hoped.

Back at Wilderswood.

Despite the skies clearing I was met with a rain shower during the descent of Two Lads and for the life of me I had no idea where it came from but nevertheless I took a soaking head to toe.

By the time I got back to the parking spaces the shower had passed and through the trees light shone through a horizontal gap in the cloud narrowing with each second passed. It had only just gone 4pm and again it felt much later. Folk began returning to their cars mostly from the direction of Rivington Pike with the exception of one E-mountain biker who passed me on route towards Rotary Way his rear flashing light faded into the distance once I lost sight of him.

That's yer lot.