Marple Bridge

BRABYNS PARK HOLLINS LANE, BROWN LOW,RIVER ETHEROW,BOTHAMS HALL,IDLE HILL, HARE AND HOUNDS,FAR WOODSTEADS ANDREWS ARMS BRABYN PARK

Distance: 9 miles,( George 10) total ascent 1550 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Dry, overcast mild; later sunny

Walkers:  Colin Davison, Laurie Fairman, George Whaites

Apologies: Alan Hart (assignment in Cyprus), Geoff Spurrell (hols), Ken Sparrow (hols)

Tony Job (hip op), George Dearsley (work) Peter Beal (hols)

Leader: Fairman. Driver: Whaites. Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Brabyns park

Starting time: 9.35am. Finishing time: 3.06pm

The most remarkable thing about this walk was the weird nature of  the way we lost articles of clothing – read on

As last week the 3^rd acting diarist must apologise for any lack of detail in route description. This is down to the fact that  a) he was appointed by default b) he did not have a pen, paper but he did have a map of part of the route

Down to 3 walkers we set off from the car park at Brabyns Park in fine style at 0930 straight up the hill of Hollins to Mill Brow- quite steep climb for first steps. We followed the road around the hill and then turned left up Grid Lane a rough bridle track which took us Sandhill Lane. Here we crossed the road and followed a good straight path through high pasture complete with early lambs several still with umbilical cords showing.

The path passed Brown Low a Bronze Age bowl barrow which when excavated revealed cremated bones but no treasure.

The path is well marked and runs in straight line for about 2km to Sandy Lane which brought us to the A626.  We crossed this and followed the transpennine route to Far Woodseats and eventually the bridge over the R Etherow, here we stopped (at 11.05) for a brew.

Crossing the river brought us to Botham’s Hall whish now has 2 gorillas in the garden and 3 Kune  Kune New Zealand pigs in the paddock they look very cute – wonder what they taste like? We followed the path up lovely valley alive with birds until we reached the top of Idle Hill. The clear weather gave us spectacular views over the plains as far as the Clwydian Hills on one side Kinder, South Head etc behind us.

Forsaking the route to the monument we headed for the Hare and Hounds where a couple of pints of Black Sheep were enjoyed despite the 290p price (each).

We left the pub at 1.10pm back tracked a few meters and turned left for Near Cloughside where the haunting occurred. Along this track, for some reason the zips on both mine and George’s rucksacks were undone I lost my anorak and George his new fleece. Fortunately Colin (god bless him) spotted mine and retrieved it but Gorges’ loss was not discovered until about ½ mile further down when we stopped for lunch.

Not wanting to climb all the way back George appeared to be resigned to the loss of his fleece but help was at hand and we spotted two walkers following the same route so we waited for them to catch up. They had picked up the fleece and hung it on the fence. George then could see the object and set out up the steep hill ½ mile up and ½ mile down to retrieve it...

The path took us to the top of the road above the Andrew’s Arms so the decision was taken to another pint(285p) here and forget the Royal Scot as it was now 3pm.

The rest of the walk to the cars took about 20mins – an eventful day!

Next week we will attempt to find if the Wanted Inn is open, so will start at Chapel Station at 9.40am and finish at the Cock in Whaley at about 2.30pm