Wildboarclough

WILDBOARCLOUGH, THREE SHIRES HEAD, KNOTBURY, DANE BOWER HOLLOW, CAT AND FIDDLE, CUMBERLAND BROOK AND STANLEY ARMS AT BOTTOM OF THE OVEN, MACCLESFIELD FOREST

Distance: 8-9 Miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Dry with Morning Cloud giving way to Afternoon Sunshine.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Jock Rooney with Tips, and George Whaites.

B Walkers: Ken Sparrow and Geoff Spurrell.

Non Walking Drinkers: Frank Dudley, John Eckersley and Tony Job.

Apology: George Dearsley (working).

Leader: Fairman (Prompter: Beal). Driver: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting Point: Free public car park at Clough House, Wildboarclough.

Starting Time: 9.40am. Finishing Time: 2.12pm.

After a month of April showers, some of them heavy and including painful hailstones, our first outing in May took place in ideal walking conditions. Cloud in the morning gradually gave way to blue skies and patchy sunshine, with a cool breeze preventing anyone from overheating.

Nature lovers were also treated to the sight of some new-born lambs, a large grey heron which took off like a lazy jumbo jet, and the calls of curlew and grouse. We also enjoyed Pietime at one of the area’s most picturesque spots, Panniers Pool, which was once the haunt of rogues and vagabonds. Enough said.

After exiting the car park with Clough House Farm on our right, we swung left across a stream and reached a gate next to a public footpath sign for the Cat and Fiddle, which was our lunchtime target. As Lawrie started to lead us through the gate, Peter B approached him in the diffident manner employed by Sergeant Wilson when he addressed Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army.

The camp followers looked on with amused interest to see how Lawrie would deal with this questioning of his authority. After some consideration he decided not to go through the gate but to turn right and head up the road.

After a hike of nearly a mile, we reached a public footpath sign on our left for Three Shires Head (20mins) and headed up a stony track. This took us across the Buxton-Congleton road (30mins), through a field and over a wooden stile on to a road by the side of a farmhouse (40mins).

We turned right for 20 yards then went left along a path which led through a gate. This brought us to Three Shires Head, the junction of two streams where the boundaries of three counties, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, abut (58mins).

We crossed the bridge on our right, leaving Cheshire for Derbyshire, but stopped short of a second bridge which marked the border with Staffordshire. Our vantage point overlooking Panniers Pool was an idyllic spot for port and pies (60mins). It also provided great excitement for Tips, who had a whale of a time chasing in and out of the water for sticks.

Our arrival in pole position at Panniers Pool was just in time to outmanoeuvre a large party of hikers from the University of the Third Age, who were obliged to take up an inferior position on the Staffordshire side of the pool.

We are indebted to Peter B for the information that two centuries ago, Three Shires Head was a notorious meeting point for the yobs of yesteryear who would swop stolen goods and thumb their noses at the sheriff’s men as they skipped from county to county in the space of a few yards.

Resuming, we took the Derbyshire route uphill away from the pool until we reached a bridge on our right (65mins). Instead of going forward towards Orchard Common, we crossed the bridge on our right following a sign for Knotbury.

This took us to a tarmac track (74mins) where we turned right with The Roaches, Ramshaw Rocks and Hen Cloud ahead to our right in the distance. We reached Knotbury Lea Cottage on our right (77mins) where the village idiot, sporting a rucksack, a trilby without a hatband and a toothless grin, bade us Good Morning.

We turned left at a wooden public footpath sign through a gate (78mins) and could soon see Shutlingsloe peeping out above the skyline on our left. At a farm on our left we plunged steeply downhill (87mins) crossing a bridge and then ascending an equally steep gradient towards some farm buildings.

The path marked with a yellow arrow took us left of the farm buildings, which included rentable cottages, and into a field where ewes had just given birth to their lambs. Many of these youngsters were still unsteady on their feet: others curiously approached us, despites their mother’s bleating, to see if we possessed any milk.

Sadly three lambs were lying dead and abandoned a few feet from our path. We went through a gate and turned left (99mins). After crossing a brook by stepping stones (111mins) we climbed up the far bank and followed the path.

This brought us, via a steep climb on our right, back to the Buxton-Congleton road we had crossed earlier (108mins). After crossing the road we continued along the path uphill, entering Dane Bower Hollow. This led us to the road opposite The Cat and Fiddle, which, at 1,690 feet above sea level, is the second highest pub in the UK.

Inside (136mins) the Hatters’ mild produced by the Robinsons’ brewery in nearby Stockport, was available for £2-90. To the consternation of some of our group, there was no bitter on offer. The only alternatives were Black Beauty stout or lager.

The pretty barmaid informed us that the landlord was leaving in two weeks and that a bad batch of bitter had not yet been replaced. There was much speculation about whether this famous, isolated pub could survive the economic climate which had brought about the demise of so many others.

Resuming we retraced our earlier footsteps before turning right (149mins) following a wooden public footpath sign for Wildboarclough via Cumberland Brook.

Lunch was taken at a valley just before a stream (159mins) and we went through the gate where we had paused at the start of our journey to reach our cars (184mins).

After de-booting we drove to The Stanley Arms at Bottom of the Oven, Macclesfield Forest, for pints of Marstons’ cask bitter at £2-90. Such was the improvement in the weather and temperature that a roaring fire brought brickbats instead of bouquets as we joined the B walkers and non-walking drinkers for refreshment.

Next week’s walk will start from the car park of The Unicorn at Dean Row, between Woodford and Handforth, at 9.25am. It is anticipated we will reach the Admiral Rodney at Prestbury around 12.30pm for a livener before returning to The Unicorn about 2.15pm.