Ridgegate

May 8, 2019

RIDGEGATE RESERVOIR, MACCLESFIELD FOREST, SHUTLINGSLOE FOOT, WILBOARCLOUGH, OAKENCLOUGH, FORMER HANGING GATE PUB, GREENBARN, RIDGEGATE

Distance: 7 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Rain and strong winds at first, easing slightly

Walkers: Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Tom Cunliffe, Alan Duckworth, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney with Tip

Alternative walkers: Colin Davison, Laurie Fairman

Apologies: Julian Ross and Mark Gibby (family duties), Alan Hart (rain allergy), George Dearsley (sunny Turkey). Hughie Hardiman and George Whaites (rain allergy).Others unspecified.

Leader: Owen Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Lay-by at Ridgegate reservoir, Macclesfield Forest.

Start time: 9.41am Finishing time: 12.36pm

Given the dire weather forecast of continued heavy rain the respectable total turn-out of eight walkers came as a welcome surprise and a tribute to their fortitude.

In the early part of the walk the promised rain indeed materialised and a very strong headwind made the climb across the open moor below Shutlingsloe unpleasant.

Our decision to omit the climb to Shutlingsloe and later to avoid the planned diversion to the Ryles Arms in view of the weather was later to appear wimpish when our allegedly 'Knacard' colleagues Colin and Laurie arrived at the finishing pub to announce they had walked 10 miles - three miles further than the main party. Perhaps they should be compulsorily drafted back in to the so-called A-walkers.

We left the lay-by at Ridgegate and headed along the road to the top of the reservoir, where we took a path at the side of the road on the right. We soon turned left to cross the road, headed up a track opposite and immediately took a footpath on the left in to the trees of Macclesfield Forest.

The land to the west of Shutlingsloe is all part of the Forest, which used to stretch 15 miles as the crow flies from Marple in the north to Bosley in the south. The medieval forest was not exclusively woodland. The word referred to land reserved for royal hunting parties, as distinct from the privately-owned equivalent - the chase.  

We turned right on another footpath (10 minutes) and at a broad track turned left (14min), still climbing steadily.

At another junction we carried straight on (22min) and shortly after took a path on the left near a bench. This brought us, on the right, to a kissing gate leading on to open moorland and a Northern Footpaths Society sign reading "Wildboarclough via Shutlingsloe" (28min).

We continued along a flagged path over the moor, reaching a gate in a wall at the bottom of the steep climb to the 1,659 ft summit on our right (41min). In view of the wind and the wet we decided to forego the summit and head left across the shoulder of the hill and the descent to Wildboarclough.

A feature of the descent was the number of new metal kissing gates, apparently supplied by Cheshire East Council. We reached a farm track and turned left to soon reach the road  in the isolated valley of Wilboarclough (76min), where we turned right. This brought us to the Crag Inn, on whose car park wall we declared pietime.

We resumed by continuing a short distance down the road to take a gate in the wall on the right on a path slanting diagonally right and climbing uphill. The route here through the fields, going through a series of five small gates, not easily spotted in the lines of drystone walls, has been marked by a helpful farmer with green discs marking each of them.

At the crest of the hill we climbed a railed stile over a drystone wall to reach a lane where we turned left (100 min).

We continued down the lane and past a small gate on the right where a sign told us that the moorland rising above us was part of the Piggford Moor Nature Reserve. We descended slightly and just before a bridge over a stream, went through a gate on the right (113min).

We climbed steadily up a narrow path with the stream on our left. At a gate and a bridge on our left we crossed to the opposite bank and slanted uphill to the right (126min).

We crossed a track leading to the comverted farmstead of Oakenclough - the former Tatton constituency home of Chancellor George Osborne - and continued through a gate to climb steeply uphill with a wall on our right.

This soon brought us to a gate leading on to open moorland (131min), which we crossed slightly to our right, reaching at the crest of a hill, a wall. We turned right, reached a gate on our left and passed through it to join a sunken muddy path to emerge at the former Hanging Gate pub(151min).

This was once one of the Wanderers' favourite watering holes run by a mad Estonian lady but now stands barren, its pub signs still outside, despite the intention to turn iit in to a private residence.

We left the building via a gate in its back garden and continued down a footpath, through three kissing gates, to reach a road where we turned left. Soon after we took a stile on the right to carry on along the Gritstone Trail down through fields.

We passed behind a wooden stable building, took a path to the right behind two modren houses and then across a track leading in to fields, reaching a lane which we crossed down and up steep steps on either side (171min). Three more stiles brought us to a farmhouse that was once  the home of Rugby legend Fran Cotton.

We skirted this on the left and reaching a driveway, then slanted right down to a bridge over a stream. This marked our departure from the route of the Gritstone Trail, which we had followed from the pub.

A steep climb up steps through what Chris informed us was known locally as Bluebell Wood - and indeed there was a profusion of them - brought us in to a field and then to the Ridgegate reservoir dam. A short stroll brought us to the Leather's Smithy pub (176 min),  where we enjoyed the Robinson's Dizzy Blonde at £3-95 a pint (this was Cheshire).

Colin and Laurie arrived later to announce they had completed an impressive 10-mile circuit including the Rossendale and Rossen Clough valleys, hitherto unknown to us.

A large group of the Wanderers are off to Poland next week to the town of Bielsko Biaka on a walking and drinking extravaganza. Those of the group who make it back might like to join the walk on Wednesday, May 22, which will start at 9.40am at the Sportsman Inn in Kinder Road, Hayfield, climbing Ollersett Moor and descending to the Lamb Inn before concluding at the Sportsman.

Happy wandering!