Disley

DISLEY, BOLLINHURST RESERVOIR, DRAKE CARR COTTAGE, MILLENIUM WOOD, BOLDER HALL FARM, BLACK HILL, BLACK ROCK RIDGE, OWLS’ NEST, BYROM HOUSE, PEAK FOREST CANAL, HIGGINS CLOUGH SWING BRIDGE, GOYT VALLEY, HAGUE FOLD FARM, THE FOX AT BROOK BOTTOM, STRINES STATION, STRINES HALL, HAGG BANK FARM, THE DANDY COCK AT DISLEY

Distance: Nine miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry with cloud giving way to blue skies and sunshine.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Alan Hart and George Whaites.

Non-walking drinker: Geoff Spurrell.

Leader: Hart. Driver: Whaites. Diarist: Hart.

Apologies for absence: Colin Davison (stranded in Scillies), George Dearsley (Turkish hols), Lawrie Fairman (Campervanning), Tony Job (attending granddaughter’s graduation), Jock Rooney (Austrian hols), Ken Sparrow (household duties).

Apologies for presence: Tony Job (wrongly identified as being a non-walking drinker last week when actually attending his grandson’s graduation).

Starting point: Free car park at Disley rail station.

Starting time: 9.18am. Finishing time: 2.08pm.

Having nearly called off this week’s walk because of forecasts of dreadful wet weather, our reduced ranks decided to sally forth regardless and were rewarded with ideal conditions. Although it has been a woeful summer thus far, the Met Office predictions have been unnecessarily gloomy.

Time and again walkers would have stayed at home and battened down the hatches only to find they had missed out on drier conditions than those predicted. Small wonder that holiday resorts are complaining about this negative information.

The only plus point is that we have been pleasantly surprised by the actuality, and delighted that we chose to ignore the voices of the so-called experts. In the late morning a few spots of rain fell, but Peter B had only to take his waterproof jacket out of his rucksack to scare it away within seconds.

From Disley rail station car park we walked past the front of The Ram’s Head and turned right. Just before The White Horse we turned right up Ring o’ Bells Lane. This led us to the former pub of that name, now a Quaker meeting house, and turned right in front of it (3mins). We headed left through a gate marked with a yellow arrow and walked up wooden steps with a cemetery on either side.

At the end of the cemetery on our left we turned diagonally left through a field, headed left along a lane and immediately right over a wooden stile (8mins). By walking diagonally right across the field we were aiming towards Lyme Cage in the distance. After crossing a wooden stile to exit the field we walked ahead down a lane and then turned left through a gate to the left of Bollinhurst Reservoir (15mins). On reaching the reservoir wall we kept it on our right as we walked towards a wood at the end of the water. We entered it via a wooden stile (25mins) and exited through a metal gate.

Our route took us straight ahead towards Drake Carr Cottage, crossing the Gritstone Trail signs (31mins). Just before the pretty cottage we turned left into Millenium Wood. This led us to a road where we turned right (36mins).

We passed South Hale Farm (which is for sale) and Bolder Hall Farm on our left before turning left over a wooden stile marked with a footpath sign (40mins). By carrying straight on at a footpath crossroads (44mins) and then turning left at the second crossroads (45mins) we were able to take a more gentle, easier and quicker route up Black Hill to reach the ridge at Black Rock (56mins).

Our brisk pace had enabled us to reach the summit in record time. With heavy rain forecast for 11 am, your leader-diarist was anxious to reach the ridge, admire the views and leave, before the heavens opened. In the event we had clear visibility back over Bowstones, Lyme Cage, Bollinhurst Reservoir and far beyond.

Turning left, we gently descended the ridge, crossing a ladder stile and passing through a gate into a field (63mins). To our left we passed Owls’ Nest, the outward bound accommodation used by pupils of Manchester Grammar School during their holidays. We went over a wooden stile into a field occupied by three Shetland ponies, leaving it and them by a wooden stile to the right of a farm.

Crossing a road (70mins) we went to the left of Byron House, through a gate marked with a yellow arrow and turned left downhill down a rocky path often covered in nettles at this time of year. The heavy summer rain had caused the path to become covered in ferns, nettles and other weeds but as there were none in shorts among our trio, it presented no problems.

At the end we turned right passing Pear Tree Cottage (74mins) and watching two rabbits hopping downhill in front of us at a furious pace. We chose the alternative permissive footpath to the left of the rocky road and emerged at the A6 (85mins). We crossed into Lower Greenshall Lane and went under a bridge. When we reached the Peak Forest Canal on our left we turned left and stopped at a bench next to Bridge 27 for pies and tia maria (88mins).

As we resumed with the canal on our left, the forecast of rain appeared to be accurate. With dark clouds massing overhead as the clocks struck 11, a few spots fell and we feared the worst. But by the time Peter B had dug into his rucksack to remove his jacket, the danger had passed and we saw no more rain for the rest of the day.

We walked under Bridge 26 and at the next, Higgins Clough Swing Bridge, we turned right down a track marked Path 45 (100mins). There were two well-trodden blind alleys either side soon after the start, but we discovered by trial and error that the middle path was the right choice. Eventually we spotted a yellow arrow to confirm our decision and crossed a footbridge over a stream (113mins).

After crossing a wooden stile we turned right up a flight of wooden steps, over a wooden stile into a field. We  swung left and reached a car park for Disley Tissues (119mins), exiting to the left and heading right uphill. There was a path to the left marked with a wooden footpath sign and a yellow arrow which could have led us down to the River Goyt and right back to the road and route we wanted. But with two choices of path down, and having chosen the wrong one at the first attempt, we opted for the road and a hairpin bend at the junction with Lower Greenshall Lane at the opposite end to where we had been almost an hour earlier.

With Waterside Cottage on our left (129mins) we carried on over a road bridge across the Goyt (131mins) and the Manchester-Sheffield railway line (136mins). After passing a children’s playground and Mouseley Bottom Wood on our right, we crossed a main road into Hague Fold Road.

This was the start of a steep climb, swinging left before a row of cottages and then right again before we emerged on the road from New Mills to Brook Bottom. On our left was a memorial bench to walker Eric Burdekin (147mins).

After turning left and walking gently downhill for 200 yards, we arrived at The Fox at exactly 12 noon (149mins). The doors remained shut for an agonising four minutes until we were allowed in, purchasing our two pints of Robbies’ bitter and one of mild for £8 just moments before a party of ten women walkers arrived to discuss the various merits of food and drinks they were going to order.

We commented on our good fortune in beating them to the punch after retiring to a side room to escape their inane chatter. Sadly the bitter, at £2-70, was deemed to be not up to its usual high standard by Peter B and George W. It was not so bad, it has to be said, to prevent them having second pints.

Resuming, we left by the back of the car park to take the stony path downhill passing first Strines Station and then Strines Hall (164mins). We crossed the Goyt (166mins) and left Station Road to cross Strines Road (169mins) and head up a gritty path before pausing for lunch on a bench on the right (171mins).

We continued and went left over a wooden stile just before reaching an aqueduct carrying the Peak Forest Canal. The path led to a gap stile which brought us to the bank of the canal. We turned left with the canal on our right (175mins).  After ignoring the Wood Ford Lift Bridge on our right (186mins) we continued to Higgins Clough Swing Bridge (192mins) where we turned right over it.

Turning left immediately along a lane, we passed Hagg Bank Farm on our right (196mins) and walked through a tunnel under the Manchester-Sheffield railway line (198mins) before emerging from Hollinwood Road by the side of The Dandy Cock (201mins).

We crossed the A6, turned right and returned to the car park to de-boot. Back at The Dandy Cock, where Geoff was the sole non-walking drinker, we enjoyed pints of Robbies’ bitter for £2-60 and mild for £2-50. The beer, whose poor form had cost our patronage since 1996, was proclaimed excellent.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from the car park of The Lantern Pike at Little Hayfield. We intend to take a stroll up Kinder, calling at The Kinder Lodge in Hayfield around 1.20pm, and finishing back at The Lantern Pike about 2.15pm.