Wardle Skyline Fell Race, Race Report 2026

23rd April 2026

This week’s report is mainly devoted to the Wardle Skyline Fell Race, the first of Rochdale Harriers organised races. The race has been in existence since 1983, following a conversation in a pub (where else) of who could run up Brown Wardle the fastest. On Saturday 91 runners started the race (and luckily finished it). Setting off from Wardle Square, up to Watergrove Reservoir, before turning left and heading up over Brown Wardle. From the summit, the runners head to the gap between Brown Wardle and Middle Hill. From the gap, they climb to the right of Middle Hill and skirt around to meet the windfarm track. Turning right the runners follow the track before going off left to the summit of Rough Hill. From the summit they then go over Crook Hill before enjoying a one mile sprint downhill to Higher Shore Farm. From there, it is down to the King Bill, before running along Pedder Lane to the finish in Wardle Square.

The race is 7 miles (11.3km), with 1250ft (381m) of ascent, with a mixture of grass, track and cobbled surfaces. At the start the weather looked promising, the runners enjoying blue skies and bright sunshine, sadly not to last. As they reached Crook Hill, they got blasted by an almighty hailstorm, driven by strong winds. At least they were going downhill and close to the finish.

The winner was Harry Peacocke, (a Rochdale Harrier who also runs for Salford Harriers), running it in a time of 47m, 40s (the record for the course being 40m 47s in 1999). The women’s winner was Ruth Jones in 10th position, in 56m, 56s, (record 47m 17s in 2002). So both winners were well down on the respective records. The outstanding Harriers performance, was that of Dave Parton (MSEN), finishing 5th in 53m, 59s, with Ryan Keenan (M45) not too far behind in 7th place, in a time of 54m 42s. The next Harrier to finish and also the first Harriers female was Danielle Dignan (WSEN), in 25th position and a time of 1hr, 2m, 30s. Zara Hirst was next, 39th, in 1hr, 6m, 44s. Pete Butterworth (M55) was Harriers third male finisher, 42nd, in 1hr 8m, 56s. Following Pete in 44th place was Sharon Annable (W55), 1hr, 10m, 27s. An excellent performance by the Harriers ladies to have their three team counters so high up in the finishers. Harriers fourth male team counter was Neil Hirst (M55), 49th in 1hr 11m, 23s. In the age categories, Ryan Keenan won the MV45 group, but it was in the teams category that the Harriers made a clean sweep, winning both the men’s and women’s.

In other news, Julie Smith made her way up to the Lake District to run in the Keswick 23K Fell Race on Saturday, with 1021m of ascent, so a tough fell race. It starts and finishes in the town centre, passing Derwentwater on its way to Manesty, before heading up High Spy and over Catbells, before heading back to Keswick. Julie completed the race in 5hrs, 1m, 19s, achieving 3rd place in her age category.

Overseas adventure story number five, this time its Jonny Lawlor, running in his first ever marathon, in the beautiful city of Milan. I won’t attempt to describe the route, other than to say it’s extremely complicated, but for football fans, it passes the San Siro Stadium, before finishing at Milan cathedral. Jonny’s time for the marathon was 3hrs, 28m, an excellent result for a first marathon.