A select group of three travelled to Marsden today to work with ranger Alice James digging out molinia on Holme Moor near the rifle range. It was our first visit to Marsden since August 2016 (!) and the first visit for two of us. Daniel knew of Marsden as being the start point of the 25-mile Marsden to Edale hike but hadn't done a workday there before. The rangers office and adjacent visitors centre is in the Old Goods Yard building beside the railway line. It took a bit of finding but we were all there on time.
We drove to the worksite in the 4x4 and worked from 10:30 to 12:30 with a short break for cake halfway through. The molinia carpets the moor and we were digging it out to form fire breaks to halt the spread of wild fires. It's shallow rooted and was easy to dig out using mattocks. Marsden has suffered a lot of fires recently - seven already this year said Alice (!) and an extensive devastating one in 2019.
To our disappointment it began to rain heavily at 12:00 (not forecast) so at 12:30 we drove back to the rangers office and had lunch indoors. Jack was wet through so left at this point. After lunch Daniel, Adrian and Alice drove over to the car park at Buckstones (junction of A640 and B6114) where Alice emptied the litter bin and we did a litter pick. The views across the moors and over to Holme Moss/Black Hill from the car park were sensational and you could see why it is such a popular spot.
Daniel
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