Bosley

Bosley

August 21, 2019

BOSLEY, ST.MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCH, RIVER DANE, TUNSTALL ROAD, BOSLEY CLOUD, CLOUD SIDE, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, QUEEN'S HEAD NR CONGLETON STATION, CANAL, DANE AQUEDUCT, BOSLEY

Distance: 10.5 miles

Difficulty: Moderate with one very steep climb.

Weather: Sunny and warm. Some slight cloud later.

Walkers: Peter Beal,  Andy Blease, Alastair Cairns, Hughie Harriman, Graham Stone

Apologies: Alan Hart (Majorca), Tom Cunliffe (Portugal), Mark Gibby (monitoring York races), Mickey Barrett (Turkey), Julian Ross and Chris Owen (both domestic duties).

Leaders: Cairns and Beal​​Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Lay-by on the A523 Macclesfield-Leek road at Bosley, near the Harrington Arms

Starting time: 09.35am​Finishing time: 2.32pm

Having been deprived of our intended leader Chris at fairly short notice today's route had something of an improvised nature about it. We were helped by Alastair having some recollection of the way followed on a previous occasion and your diarist for some reason having packed a map of the area (but sadly not his sandwiches).

We were rewarded with a summit with magnificent views, achieved after a very sharp climb, and very pleasant walking weather in the Cheshire countryside.

Four of the Wanderers left the lay-by at the appointed hour, walking a short distance down the road towards Leek to reach the Queen's Arms, where we crossed the road and took a path to the left of the St Mary the Virgin church.

The path, muddy in places, emerged in to a field which we crossed downhill before taking a track that emerged at factory buildings (17 minutes). This was the site of an explosion at a wood treatment works in July 2015 that claimed the lives of four people.

We crossed the factory yard and joined a road, Tunstall Road, at a bridge crossing the River Dane. We turned right and climbed steadily uphill and soon afterwards bootsteps behind us heralded the arrival of Hughie, who had spent some time earlier awaiting the arrival of companions at the other Harrington Arms in Gawsworth, a few miles away. He had apparently followed his satnav. Expecting a solitary walk he had guessed the first part of the route, then fortunately spotted rucsacs ascending the hill.

At the crest of the hill we turned left on a small lane and almost immediately found a footpath on the right leading us in to a field full of a large number of baleful bullocks.

We climbed quite steeply through two fields with a futuristic residence with picture windows above us on our right, in to a narrow path which emerged on a minor road (42 min).

We turned left here. On previous expeditions we have continued further along this lane before reaching a well-defined track turning left to the summit of Bosley Cloud. This time we took a path to the right almost immediately. This proved to be an extremely steep ascent through at times head-high bracken. 

The final steps brought us between two crags on the edge of the escarpment, where a last scranble brought us to the main path only a short distance from the summit of The Cloud, as it is more properly titled, on our right (54 min).

There were magnificent views here of the Cheshire plain, with the Jodrell Bank radio telescope prominent, of the highest point of Cheshire - Shining Tor - as well as Shutlingsloe and, further afield, the Shropshire and Welsh hills.

A nearby stone-mounted viewfinder, built to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee, pointed us towards - among others - Liverpool Cathedral (38 miles), the Berwyn mountains (55 miles), and less helpfully London's Charing Cross (143 miles).

Bosley Cloud, despite its modest 1,125 foot height, has the distinction of being rated among the 176 English Marilyns (a pun on the Scottish Munros), which are hills classfied not by their height but their relative height to the terrain around them, requiring an ascent of 150 metres (571 feet) on all sides.

It is also famously renowned for its 'double sunset', an astro-geographical phenomenon. The science involved was not covered by your diarist in his O-level studies, but suffice it to say that at the solstice the sun can be seen to set behind the summit, partially reappearing from the steep northern slope, then setting again over the horizon.

It was historically observed  from the churchyard of St Edward the Confessor in Leek, but trees have intervened and the best view is now from a point on the A523 above Rudyard reservoir.

After a lengthy break to admire the views, we carried on past the trig point on a delightful descent through heather before reaching woods and a track that the map revealed to be the strangely-named Gooberryhole Lane. We turned right here and soon after stopped at a gate for pie-time (76 min), sadly without port or damson gin.

We followed the track around a bend to the right and soon reached a road, where we continued across along a bridleway to soon reach another road. Here we turned left and very soon took a footpath on the right, leading us through fields for almost a mile to emerge at a footbridge over the Macclesfield Canal.

A brief episode here where we had to resort to Alastair's compass to check our bearings will be glossed over.

Having crossed the canal, we turned right along the towpath towards Congleton and reached the Queen's Arms near Congleton station, accessed from steps up from the canal (121 min). Your diarist recalls that in the mists of time the Wanderers had started a walk from here.

The pleasant barmaid confirmed that it being 12.01pm we were the first customers of the day so we thought it wise to shun the impressive array of eight real ales (who knows when they had last been shifted?) and opted for Guinness, lager and soft drinks. Your diarist can record that a pint of Estrella (from Barcelona) was £3-85.

We retraced our steps to the point where had joined the canal (138 min) and continued briskly and uneventfully for almost four miles before reaching an aqueduct over the River Dane, shortly before the start of the flight of the 12 Bosley Locks (213 min).

Here we took steps to the left, crossed a bridge to the other side of the canal and followed a path above the river and then through fields to reach the bridge over the Dane we had crossed on our outward route. We retraced our steps to the church and the parked cars (242 min).

Next week's walk will be with the aim of viewing the heather in short-lived full bloom, hopefully, on Mill Hill. We will start from the Sportsman Inn on Kinder Road, Hayfield, at 9.45 am, calling en route at the Little Mill Inn at Rowarth. We hope to return to the Sportsman at 2.30pm. 

Happy Wandering!