Ollersett Moor

LANTERN PIKE INN AT LITTLE HAYFIELD, GIGGLE-GAGGLE PATH, BIRCH VALE, MORLANDS ROAD, OLLERSETT MOOR, BIG STONE, PEEP O' DAY, STONES HOUSE FARM, SPORTSMAN INN, HAYFIELD, LANTERN PIKE INN

Distance: 8.5 miles. Weather: Sunny.

Difficulty: Moderate

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, George Waites

Apologies: Alan Hart (assignment in Lakes),  George Dearsley (w^*king), Colin Davison (motorbiking in Europe), Jock Rooney (diving in Belize), Laurie Fairman (France)

Starting time: 09.42 Finishing time: 14.05

Leader: Cunliffe. Diarist: Beal

Sunshine, clear skies and a cooling breeze made perfect walking conditions for the four walkers today – far fewer than for the packed extravaganza of beer and curry in Manchester the previous week.

We welcomed back Micky Barrett after his recent knee operation and after his longest outing since the op – including a stiff climb – he happily reported no ill effects beyond a slight twinge.

We assembled outside the Lantern Pike Inn and here speculated on the significance of the format and colours of the Derbyshire flag, which has flown from Tom's pole for some time.

Micky's suggestion that the flower in its centre appeared to be the yellow rose of Texas seemed unlikely, so we headed off in ignorance down the lane towards Clough Mill at 09.42.

Subsequent research however revealed that the standard in question came in to being only in 2006 as a result of a local radio campaign. Designed by Martin Enright from Derby, its green cross on a blue background represents the countryside, rivers and reservoirs of the county. The golden flower in the centre is in fact the Tudor rose, depicted in that colour to distinguish it from the roses of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The flag has since achieved official status.

We passed Clough Mill and continued left up the track in front of a row of terraced cottages to join the "giggle-gaggle" path. Local folklore has it that it was so-named after the groups of chattering mill girls who would use it to walk to and from work at the mill from nearby Hayfield.

Joining the path we bore left and shortly after ignored the left hand fork leading to Hayfield to continue to the minor road of Sitch Lane. We turned right and 200 yards further on took a stile on the left to lead through a field down to Heginbotham's Farm.

Turning right, a stile to the left after a few yards took us along a very muddy stretch of path – the only real mud of the day – and down a field to cross the bottom of the small Birch Vale reservoir.

High Peak Council's local plan suggests this should be opened for recreational use so pedalos and ice cream stalls could greet us on future outings here.

We climbed up to cross the Sett Valley Trail, the former two-and-a-half mile branch railway line between New Mills and Hayfield until its demise in 1970. 

Before the Second World War the line would carry at a weekend upwards of 5,000 passengers a day from Manchester – most of them ramblers seeking respite from the grim working conditions in the city' mills and factories.

We took a short footpath opposite to emerge on the main Hayfield to New Mills road opposite the Grouse pub at 10.08.

This marked the start of the long steady climb of Ollersett Moor, continuing for some two miles.

At the end of a roughly metalled lane we went through a gate (10.28) to reach the open moorland with the TV repeater mast serving Birch Vale close by on our right.

The path – recently churned up by four-wheel-drive vehicles of contractors erecting new fencing on the moor continued for another mile until reaching a gate next to a three-way public bridleway sign (10.46).

We ignored the trail on the right and heading straight on across the open field to rejoin the trail just before a small stream.

The way here took us two hundred yards to a fingerpost where we following a public footpath sign indicating diagonally left up the hillside. We crossed a stile 300 yards further on and shortly after emerged at the rock outcrop of Big Stone (11.05), with sudden and dramatic views of Kinder Scout ahead of us and the Cheshire Hills in the distance away to our right.

We descended sharply to the foot of the outcrop where we sheltered from the cool but pleasant breeze in a rocky alcove created by the extensive mining and quarrying operations along Cracken Edge here in the 19^th and early 20^th century.

Tom, obviously in benign mood, allowed us an unprecedented full ten minutes here for pie time, after which we started our descent left along the grassy track heading for the house at Peep O' Day and the main Hayfield to Chapel-en-le Frith road.

A quarter-of-a-mile down the track we were pleased to see that the old farmhouse of Whiterakes – derelict for as long as anyone can remember – is in the process of being made habitable again, its doors and windows repaired and the farmyard and track being made serviceable.

Our descent continued to join the A624 at Peep O'Day. Legend has it that the builder and original owner designed the from door with an eye-shaped window above – apparently so the first rays of the morning sun would light up his new bride's face as she lay sleeping. Her reaction to being woken like this early every day in the middle of summer is unrecorded.

We crossed the main road (11.45) and headed briefly left towards Hayfield before taking a track on the right winding up for 300 yards past a small quarry. Emerging on a bridleway we crossed this and went through a gate opposite to emerge shortly after on the ridge with Mount Famine above us on the right.

We started our descent towards Hayfield on the bridleway slanting left down the slope. After joining a metalled track a quarter of a mile further down, we immediately headed off left again on another track, slightly uphill, to take us past Stones House Farm and its small herd of Highland cattle.

The track descended towards the attractively-sited Hayfield campsite, where we took a footpath between the two camp fields, crossed the River Kinder on a small bridge, and ascended a path to reach the road leading from Hayfield to Bowden Bridge, only a short distance from the Sportsman Inn, which we reached at 12.27.

Here the Thwaite's Wainwright was on good form at £3.40 a pint.

We left at 12.57 to take Kinder Road down to Hayfield village, where several houses, the pub and the newsagent have been transformed in appearance back to the 1920s for the filming of the second TV series of the grim and gloomy The Village, starring John Sim and Maxine Peake.

We crossed the River Sett, passed the church, and recrossed the main Hayfield to Chapel road in to the Information Centre car park.

We turned right in to a new housing development and took a signed path to the right, crossed the river again and reached the Old School Field, where two benches provided us with seats for lunch (13.17) in the sunshine.

We emerged at the top of the field in to Swallow House Lane, and turned left past houses under construction in a development named Mainwaring Gardens, after the Dad's Army character of Hayfield's most famous son, the late Arthur Lowe.

We turned right in to Primrose Lane, passed the former Slack's paper mill, and reached a cluster of cottages marking the start of the recently much-improved footpath linking the village to Little Hayfield.

We followed this to reach the Lantern Pike at 2.05 pm, where we enjoyed Timothy Taylor's Landlord at a mere £3.40 a pint representing tremendous value for an award winning ale of the finest quality, mmmmmmmmmmmm. Excellent chips were also kindly provided by our leader.

Next week's walk will start in Bollington at 0930 at the (free) public car park opposite the Spinners Arms, with a stop en route at the Robin Hood in Rainow. Drinks afterwards will be at the Dog and Partridge.