Bowland CRoW - The Three Towers

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N/S ? ??.??? W/E ??? ??.???  [] In United Kingdom

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White Hill in the Forest of Bowland is home to three towers whose original purpose is not obvious to me. This cache takes you to these towers over land that was previously out of bounds but which became accessible following the introduction of the CRoW Act in September 2004.

The coordinates given for the cache are those of the Trig Point on White Hill. Number the towers 1, 2 and 3 starting with the most southerly.

Starting at the Cross of Greet (SD 682 608), follow the fence-line to the trig point. Note the “Snnnn” number on the side of the column. From here, continue SSE to Tower 1 and take a GPS reading from the front of the tower (i.e. the side with the opening). Return to Tower 2 (the one close to the trig point), and take a similar reading. Observe the heights of towers 1 and 2 (differences in height are obvious), together with any other significant features.

Add 0.489 to the North reading for Tower 1. Add 0.272 to the West reading for Tower 2. Proceed to these coordinates, where you should find Tower 3.

The coordinates of the cache are N54 01.abc W02 30.def, where:

a = 10 minus the number of the middle-sized tower
b = the number of the tower surrounded by water plus 4
c = the fourth digit of the “Snnnn” number plus 2
d = the number of the tallest tower
e = the square of the number of the smallest tower
f = the first digit of the “Snnnn” number

WARNING: White Hill is isolated, and you should be kitted-out in appropriate walking gear including decent walking boots and a change of socks! Only attempt this in good weather, and it’s recommended not to do it alone (you will not meet anyone else in the event of a mishap). Tell someone where you are going. Take a copy of the new OL41 map, which shows the boundaries of the access land and the approximate locations of the towers. Note that the whole of this walk is on previously-prohibited access land, with the exception of Tower 1 which is on United Utilities land where access was allowed prior to CRoW.

TOP TIP: Allow at least three hours. There are no footpaths or tracks on this cache, and the terrain is rough and VERY BOGGY. If you can attempt this cache on a cold, sunny day when the ground is frozen but the views are good, then these are probably the ideal conditions for doing the cache. Several other caches can be “seen” from the cache, namely Wolfhole Crag, Whernside, Pen-y-Gent, Ingleborough and (I think) Smearsett Scar.

NOTE: You shouldn’t need to go further South than Tower 1, further West than Tower 3, or further East than the fence from the Cross of Greet. Go outside this and you’ve gone wrong!

If anyone knows the original purpose of the towers, I would be very interested to know.

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
(letter above equals below,
and vice versa)

Haqre gjb ebpxf, 20 lneqf sebz srapr.
(Decrypted Hints)

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The Cache

Logged Visits ( 7 total. Visit the Gallery (8 images) )

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Cache Logs

April 5 by Aldocandy (2489 found) Walked up to the trig with Team Bullseye and found 2 of the towers but we didn't really have time to find the other and then search for the cache. So despite searching several places which fitted with the clue we continued our walk/ Bet it's nice in the sun. Enjoyed the Trig swimming by Grufty, Betty Boo & PUP [view this log] Betty Boo

October 8, 2008 by ogremlin (209 found) see:..'Walking Britain'..photo:115203..Branstree/Haweswater. survey column could be similar. [view this log]

January 8, 2008 by taurus-littrow (405 found) Great cache, can't believe more people have not done this one. Set out in reasonable weather for a solo trip but half way to the trig it started to rain and did not stop for the 2hrs 25mins it took to return to the car park at greta cross. The viz was ok reducing to 50m at worst. Very wet and boggy up here, reminded me of the Cheviots. Found all the towers ok and sat in the rain working out the maths. Found the Cache easily at the co ords were spot on. Cache is bone dry and does not need any maintainence, though the pencil is a bit dodge. As for the towers i hate to spoil the mystery but they were probably built for surveying. There are similar towers in the lake districts eastern fells used to build the tunnels for the Manchester water pipeline. I in a previous occupation worked for the Ordnance Survey and we often built 30-40ft scaffolding towers to assist in surveying, this confirmed by the nipple bolt at the base of the tower 1's chimmney(used to plumb the intrument over the precise spot).The surveyors would have built a scaffold around the towers with an instrument held in the top bit, thats why they are in a line and of differing heights. Glorified tripods- just like every trig pillar! Thanks for bringing me to this cold, wet but interesting place. [view this log] Tower 1 emerges from the mist Surveying bolt Tower 1 Looking down from the top of Taurus-Littrow!

September 6, 2006 by Seasider (1918 found) I fancied a day out in the hills so I thought I'd have a crack at this rarely visited cache which is just down the road from a farm where some friends used to live. Really enjoyable cache. The walk to the trig is long but easy and even after weeks of on and off rain it was nothing out of the ordinary as far as bogginess was concerned. Interesting towers. Maybe someone's folly? Can't see how they could be beacons due to differing sizes and the obvious problem of lighting a fire in one of them! The hack across to tower 1 which disappeared as the mist rolled in was interesting but I managed to stumble down the right channel in the bog to see the bizarre shape reappear above me! Cache was easily found - safe after nearly a year since the last find - but I had problems writing with the damp blue pencil. Took a direct route back from the cache to an access gate rather than trudge back up the hill around the fences. The weather cleared enroute and the sun came out to give a pleasant warm afternoon up top! TNLN Cheers! Sesider [view this log]

September 12, 2005 by Dill the Dog (72 found) This has been on my list for a while. A very evocative Tolkien-like (-1) name and a mystery too. It's quite nice when you shove a few phrases and keywords into Google and you DON'T get an answer. Try any combination of 'white' 'hill' 'tower' 'bowland' 'chimney' 'beacon' etc and nothing solves the mystery. This isn't the first time the question's been asked though: (visit link) I had a great day for this walk. Good visibility, just a little hazy. To begin with I thought it was going to be easy, as you already start quite high and don't gain a huge amount of height on the way to the summit. Had an exciting moment when the bog at N54°01.843 W002°29.670 swallowed one of my walking poles right up to the hilt. The top was interesting and the towers not what I expected. A strange mix of new and old, mortar and stone, concrete and rubble. Chimneys more than beacons I think. But why? They all seem in a straight line. But again, why? Heavy going on the summit. Peat hags like tidal waves. And midges in september? LOADS of dragonflies. After an easy climb I was pretty much worn out by the time I'd explored the summit and reached the cache, and abandoned any thoughts of further explorations as I meandered back to the road. The most bizarre find of the day was the tag from a helium balloon with a phone number. I 'phoned it in the evening to discover it was part of a batch release from Langho on Friday. [view this log] Dragonfly Tower 1 from the rain gauge The trig point

Current time: 11/22/2009 4:41:33 AM
Last Updated: 4/5/2009 5:19:47 PM
Rendered: From Database
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum