Six members of the Circle, plus one guest, took the train to Walsden for a poetry infused walk, a nine-mile route devised and led by Mark Pennington. The main focus of the day was the Rain Stone, an outcrop of ancient gritstone high on the moors alongside the Pennine Way, just north of Blackstone Edge. It’s one of the Stanza Stones and home to the poem Rain by Simon Armitage.

Lunch was taken after a reading of the poem (with thanks to Marg for dispensing emergency bananas to those who forgot to bring anything to eat), before we took a meandering descent down to the Summit Inn for a beer (or two). The ‘summit’ is a reference to the high point on the Rochdale Canal as it crosses the Pennines. Our route along the canal back to Walsden took us past another poem: Andrew MacMillan’s Watershed. It’s situated at the point from which the poem takes its name—rain on the Lancashire side will eventually end up in the Irish Sea; rain falling on the Yorkshire side will flow into the North Sea.

From left to right: Bob, Graeme, Gail, Mark, Marg, Su, John

Many thanks to Mark for the idea and the organisation. The only disappointment was the weather. Our leader singularly failed to deliver any suitably damp weather to do the poems justice. We were instead cursed with blue skies and warm sunshine on what proved to be the hottest day of the year so far.

It is hoped that a summer walk with literary leanings can become an annual tradition for the Circle.