Winter Hill, Belmont

Winter Hill rises to 456 metres on the West Pennine Moors above Belmont and Bolton, making it one of the highest points in Lancashire. It is crowned by a cluster of tall broadcasting masts, the tallest of which stands over 300 metres high and is visible for miles across the north west, from Blackpool Tower on a clear day right across to the Peak District.

The most popular route up starts near Belmont village or from the car parks at Rivington, following well-worn tracks across heather and cotton-grass moorland. From the summit the views take in the Ribble Valley, Morecambe Bay, Snowdonia on exceptional days, and the Manchester conurbation to the south. A memorial near the top marks the 1958 Winter Hill air disaster, when a passenger flight from the Isle of Man crashed into the hillside in fog.

The hill is also a site of protest history: the Winter Hill mass trespass of 1896 saw around 10,000 people walk over the moor to reassert public access, decades before the more famous Kinder Scout trespass. Wear proper boots and windproofs, as the weather changes quickly and the ground is often boggy underfoot.