The remains of an American World War II era Boeing Superfortress bomber called the B-29 ‘Overexposed’, which crashed on the peak on November 3rd 1948 are scattered across Bleaklow moor, just off the Snake Pass (A57).
It is thought that the crew, who were on their way to Burtonwood from RAF Scampton in bad weather, thought they had passed Bleaklow and made a mistake in the height they were meant to be flying, but as none of the 13 crew members survived, we’ll never know for certain what caused the plane to crash.
But despite the harsh conditions on the moorland (it’s 2,000ft above sea level) the crash site has been very well preserved and serves as a monument to the crew.
The crash site itself is incredibly eeery. It probably didn’t help that there were very few people up there at the time we went up, or that it was overcast, bright, rainy, hot and cold all in one go either!
I’ve seen lots of photos of the plane site but I was quite amazed at how much of the wreckage was left, and how spread out it was.
And I was also blown away by the views from up there too. The scenery was just breathtaking.
Finding the site;
Every time I read about this walk I read that you needed to be able to navigate with a compass and a map to get to the crash site because it wasn’t on a trail, but ngl, that’s not necessary. Rob and I set out with the Pennine way route marked on our google maps, and then the point we figured we needed to turn off, and also the point of the crash too, which meant we didn’t need to be able to navigate, but we were well prepared!
Whilst there isn’t really an internet signal up there there is GPS, so you can follow your phone – just make sure you download it before you set off.
Also, it said it was a really hard walk to do. But I made it, and I have incurable cancer, I’m on chemo – I’ve got noticeably worse in terms of my stamina and ability in the last few months – and there was only one moment where I needed a rest!
It was probably a 5mile round trip that we did, including a little detour over some boggy marshland, and, all in all, we were probably out for about 3 hours, but that included lots of time taking photos. We decided to take a different route back too and we might have just made it up as we went so it probably wasn’t the easiest path down, but it was fun!
Also, wear walking boots. We saw some kids in trainers and they didn’t make it far off the path…..
How to get there;
The best place to park is on the layby on the Snake Pass, where you can get to the Pennine way to start the walk.
The satnav postcode is SK13 7PQ or the coordinates are 53°25’58.7″N 1°52’08.7″W. It’s free to park there.
Like I said, it’s best to have the map downloaded as the signal is pretty sketchy out there.