Water at the hill top

There is something plain wrong about water at the tops of hills. But this Summer, I keep encountering it. I decided to "adapt" a walk from a guide book today, adding a climb to, and then scramble along, a craggy morland edge, mostly worked-out quarries. That was fine. And then, I tried for a "short-cut" up what looked to be a benign field at the far side of which was a track to a pub.

It turned out that the field was in fact two separate bogs - called Rushworth's Allotment and Pickles Rough. They consisted of large tussocks of grass and reeds, surrounded by water, mostly hidden from view, ankle to knee deep, up a 15% slope. The water didn't seem to be moving. I just don't get it. It took me the best part of 30 minutes to struggle across less than half a mile of this morass, stumbling, getting drenched, swearing and in the process, bringing on a back spasm.

Below the boggy fields were structures, such as the one shown in this blip, for draining the water from the moor. Not working very well are they?

Oh, I do so enjoy the challenges of walking in the Pennines.