Kinder Reservoir

 October 26, 2022

KINDER RESERVOIR

SPORTSMAN INN HAYFIELD, HAYFIELD VILLAGE, GIGGLE-GAGGLE PATH, FIVE-LANE ENDS, MATLEY MOOR, HOLLINWORTH HEAD, CARR MEADOW, MIDDLE MOOR, WHITE BROW, FOOT OF WILLIAM CLOUGH, KINDER RESERVOIR, BROAD CLOUGH, FARLANDS BOOTH, HILL HOUSES, BOWDEN BRIDGE, SPORTSMAN INN

Distance: 10 miles Total ascent/descent: 2,145ft

Difficulty: Fairly strenuous

Weather: Dry, sunny and mild with some wind

Walkers: Peter Beal, Mark Gibby, Hughie Hardiman, Jock Rooney with Milly, Keith Welsh, Simon Williams, Cliff Worthington

Apologies: Turkey Lycian Way walkers (details elsewhere on blog), Tom Cunliffe (sorting recent house move)

Leader: Beal Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Sportsman Inn, Kinder Road, Hayfield

Starting time: 10.48am Finishing time: 2.12pm

Today’s outing could be called the Not The Turkey Walk Walk. We enjoyed a fairly rigorous

10-mile trip in brilliant weather including a circuit of the Kinder Reservoir and finishing at the welcoming Sportsman Inn.

Six walkers who had not made the Turkey journey turned out – joined by Cliff, who had done the Turkey walk but returned earlier than the others. He was pumped for information and entertained us with accounts of our chums’ epic adventures, walking and otherwise.

Your leader’s original plan had been to complete an anti-clockwise circuit of Kinder Reservoir and call on the way back at the Lantern Pike, the former domain of our friend Tom. But enquiries found they were not open Wednesday lunch. They are so on the ball that their website lists their contact email as Tom and Stella @ Lantern Pike. One fears for its future.

Plan B saw us leave the Sportsman to turn right down into Hayfield village, and opposite the Pack Horse pub take the track left under the relief road into the May Queen field to emerge on Swallow House Lane. We turned left here and after a short walk swung right to pass the football pitch (1 mile).

At a group of houses, we turned left, following a sign for the Giggle-Gaggle Path. This path between Hayfield and Little Hayfield takes its name from the groups of girl mill workers who would use it to go to work from Hayfield to the Clough Mill at Little Hayfield, presumably giggling all the way.

We climbed up a narrow path and at a gate turned right with Hollinworth Brook far below us on the right. We continued up a track to a house and crossed a stile to take a narrow path that brought us to the open moor at a stile below Lantern Pike (2 miles).

We bore right here across open land, reaching a gate at the junction known locally as Five Ways. We turned left along a track, reached the farmhouse of Matley Moor, turned right and then left and crossed a stile to reach open moorland again. We swung right, crossed the moor and came to a stile where we turned right onto a track that took us down to the Monk’s Road (3.5 miles).

A right turn here on the road for a short distance brought us to the main Hayfield to Glossop road, which we crossed precariously to reach a stile. We turned right down a path that brought us to a small quarry where pietime was declared.

Continuing down, we came to the bridge crossing the stream at Carr Meadow (4.5 miles) and carried on over the moorland on a gentle climb to reach the white-painted shooting cabins on Middle Moor (6 miles).

Here we could have turned right to descend to Hayfield village for an early finish but chose to complete the circuit of Kinder Reservoir. We carried on down a footpath to the left, ignoring a bridleway sign on the right and took a narrow path through the heather, descending with the much-depleted reservoir below us on the right.

At a junction of tracks where we could have descended steeply to the foot of William Clough we took the easier option and carried on, descending more gently to reach the stream bed, where we turned right downstream to reach the footbridge at the foot of the clough (7 miles), a spot where in times long ago a smith called William plied his trade in a small forge.

We crossed the bridge and followed a narrow path through a copse with the head of the reservoir on our right. This brought us to a stream, which we crossed on a bridge and climbed on a path ascending diagonally on the far bank. Near the crest of the hill we took an unsigned path on the left which soon brought us to a gate at the top of a steep descent on a grassy path. During the descent, your leader for the day took a rather crashing fall after slipping on mud but escaped with nothing worse than a bruised shoulder.

We crossed a stile at the foot of the hill, forded a stream at the foot of Broad Clough, crossed another stile and took a track with woods on our right (8 miles). A large group of young cattle were approached cautiously but proved to be docile.

We dropped down across the field to reach a road facing the reservoir’s earth dam and had a brief lunch stop. We turned left through the hamlet of Farlands, took a track on the left past Booth Farm and arrived at the charming collection of cottages at Hill Houses (9 miles). A short descent here brought us to the road leading to Bowden Bridge and the Hayfield campsite.

It transpired that Jock and Keith, slightly adrift at the rear of the group, turned left instead of right here. They soon realised the error but your leader should have been paying more attention. Mea culpa.

From Bowden Bridge it was a short walk down Kinder Road to the cars outside the Sportsman(10 miles), where the beer drinkers among us enjoyed the Theakston’s Gold at £4-20 a pint.

Arrangements were being made for next week’s walk when it dawned on your leader and temporary diarist that he would not be available so no conclusion was reached. Stay tuned for further information.

Happy Wandering!