Little Hayfield

LITTLE HAYFIELD, PARK HALL WOOD, MIDDLE MOOR, WILLIAMS CLOUGH, KINDER DOWNFALL, KINDER LOW END, TUNSTEAD HOUSE, BOWDEN BRIDGE, KINDER LODGE AT HAYFIELD, CALICO WAY, SETT VALLEY AND LANTERN PIKE INN

Distance: Nine Miles.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous.

Weather: Dry with cloud and sunny spells.

Walkers: Alan Hart and George Whaites.

B walker: Lawrie Fairman.

C walker: Tom Cunliffe.

D walkers: Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Non-walking drinkers: Frank Dudley, John Eckersley and Tony Job.

A leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart. Driver: Hart.

Apologies: Peter Beal (Covering Olympic Games), Colin Davison (romantically involved), George Dearsley (Turkish hols), Jock Rooney (Austrian hols) and Ken Sparrow (domestic duties).

Starting point: Car park of Lantern Pike Inn, Little Hayfield.

Starting time: 9.43am. Finishing time: 2.40pm.

We welcomed a new member to our group in the shape of Mike “Wally” Walton and the return of a lapsed member in the portly form of Lantern Pike landlord Tom Cunliffe. The latter’s lack of fitness created a new genre of C walk, thus demoting our B walkers into an even lower category.

It does not seem that long ago that all the Wednesday Wanderers walked together, but at least we have been able to adapt to our varying strengths and weaknesses as the ravages of time take hold. Significantly, we can all get to a pub.

Lawrie announced at the outset that an infection from which he was not fully recovered would prevent him from going all the way up Kinder. The start was delayed while Tom, doing a passable impersonation of Billy Bunter, stuffed himself with tea and toast.

From the Lantern Pike we turned right towards Hayfield and then crossed the road opposite Slack Lane to enter Park Hall Wood. This brought us to a gate leading to Middle Moor (7mins). We walked uphill through the gorse and bracken until we reached a drystone wall where we turned left (22mins) towards the white shooting lodge.

At a public footpath sign (28mins) we turned right towards Edale and where the path forked soon afterwards we headed left. Tom joined Lawrie for the shorter walk, heading down to Kinder Reservoir while George W and your diarist set off up Williams Clough. We paused for pies and Tia Maria en route (72mins) and reached the summit (91mins).

After admiring the view back down across the reservoir and valley we turned right along the ridge until we reached and crossed Kinder Downfall (122mins). We had now walked into the clouds and used a row of cairns to guide us we continued along the path with the valley on our right. A carpet  of stone flags marked the point where our path joined Jacob’s ladder. The left fork headed for Edale and we turned right towards Hayfield (159mins).

After a steep descent we went through two gates to enter and leave a field which marked the exit from Kinder Low End (181mins). By following the well-trodden path through fields downhill we left the Kinder Estate by crossing our first wooden stile of the walk (195mins).

The path took us round Tunstead House on our right, straight ahead at crossroads and reached Bowden Bridge on our right (209mins). We chose not to cross the bridge and risk the temptations of The Sportsman, passing a campsite on our left and following a wooden public footpath sign marked Hayfield and Sett Valley Trail.

We exited Valley Road into Fishers Bridge (222mins) and crossed the main road diagonally right to enter New Mills Road with Kinder Lodge on the corner (224mins). There we found Geoff and Wally, who had arrived an hour earlier and were fully refreshed. They had caught the bus to New Mills and walked some four miles along the Sett Valley Trail to Hayfield.

Lawrie was also present, explaining that as he had led Tom from Kinder Reservoir towards the Mermaid’s Pool half way up Kinder, the terrain had become progressively more difficult and Tom progressively more knackered. Tom had decided to return and had last been seen passing Kinder Reservoir in the direction of the Lantern Pike, where we found him later.

After quaffing pints of excellent Timothy Taylor Landlord at £2-70, the A walkers were rejoined by Lawrie for the final journey back to Little Hayfield. We walked a few paces up New Mills Road before turning right into Station Road, with the bus terminus on our left. We went into Wood Lane and picked up a sign for the Calico Trail on our right (229mins).

This took us over a footbridge across the River Sett and into a park where we stopped for lunch (235mins).  After leaving the park to the left we turned right up Bank Vale Road (239mins) with Oaklands on our left. At Bank Vale Farm we followed a public footpath sign on our right for Little Hayfield (244mins). This led us via Slack Lane back to The Lantern Pike (255mins), where the Derbyshire county flag was flying from the pole. Here the Timothy Taylor Landlord was also in excellent form, although at £3-22 a pint it was a little harder to swallow.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from Dane Bridge, just beyond The Ship Inn at Wincle, near Macclesfield. We intend to take refreshment around 12.30pm at the Rose and Crown in Algreave and finish around 2.20pm at The Old King’s Head in Gurnett, Macclesfield. Your diarist is awaiting return calls from these pubs to confirm they will be open.