Rowarth

 August 21, 2024.

ROWARTH, MATLEY MOOR, KNARRS NOOK, BURNT HILL, MILL HILL, SNAKE PATH, MIDDLE MOOR, TWENTY TREES, KINDER LODGE AT HAYFIELD, CALICO TRAL, LANTERN PIKE, GIGGLE GAGGLE PATH, HARTHILL, THE LITTLE MILL INN AT ROWARTH

Distance: 10.5 miles.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous.

Weather: Dry but cloudy start: sunny spells later.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Steve Brearley, Alastair Cairns, Mike Cassini, Mark Enright, Alan Hart, Jonathan Hart, Chris Owen, Dean Taylor with Tommy, Cliff Worthington.

Alternative walker: Jock Rooney with Milly.

Apologies: Andy Blease (in Anglesey), Tom Cunliffe (hospital visiting), Julian Ross (unspecified), Keith Welsh (returning from hols)

Leader: Beal. Diarist: Alan Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The Little Mill Inn at Rowarth SK22 1EB.

Starting time: 9.40am. Finishing time: 2.42pm.

An improved turnout for this hike around the moors below the Kinder Plateau was swollen by the debut of Stephen Brearley and the return of your diarist's prodigal son.

Stephen, from Woodley, Stockport, is the cousin of Alastair's wife Janette. Jonathan was returning after an absence of more than a year since he ended his early retirement and resumed w*^k.

Our walk took us along a familiar route but from the opposite direction and we were rewarded with some spectacular views as we were surrounded by purple heather in full bloom.

All around the blooming heather

From the car park, with the pub on our left, we turned right at a public footpath sign which emerged on a road. Here we turned left and then right following a public footpath sign next to a red phone box (5mins). This took us across a ford over a stream. Beyond it, we went left over a wooden stile and followed a path which took us across the stream again by stepping stones.

Emerging on a road we turned left (11mins) before turning right at a wooden public footpath sign marked Lantern Pike (22mins). It has become a habit for Chris and Dean to go their own way whenever Pete is leading and at this point, they decided to ignore the right turn. We did not see them again for half an hour.

Heading towards Kinder

The remaining eight of us turned left through a wooden gate (26mins) from where we reached a road and turned immediately right through a metal gate (32mins). We soon crossed a wooden stile and then went over a stone step stile (38mins) where we turned right keeping a drystone wall on our right.

After Passing Knarrs Farm on our right, we crossed a stone step stile beyond the farmhouse, turning right for 20 yards to reach a gravel track and then left away from the building. We reached a road and turned right (48mins) to reach and then cross the main A624 Glossop to Chapel Road (53mins)

On the far side, Chris and Dean awaited our arrival and rejoined us as we walked straight ahead from the road until we reached a section of path which had been flagged by stone retrieved from redundant mill factories. These took us up Burnt Hill, where the white Trig Point of Harry Hut was visible on our left.

From here we continued along the flagged path to Mill Hill where we stopped for Pietime (92mins) by the side of a wrecked plane.

Some of the wreckage of the plane

On October 11, 1944, a Liberator of the USAF 310^th Ferry Squadron was being moved from RAF Burtonwood to RAF Hardwick. It crashed in low cloud on Mill Hill, which is 1,785 feet above sea level.

The two occupants, 2^nd Lieutenant Creighton Houpt, its pilot, and Staff Sergeant Jerome Navjar, its navigator, survived the accident uninjured. But it is believed the pilot sustained a broken jaw in a fight which followed when the navigator blamed the senior officer for ignoring his warning to fly higher.

Resuming we returned to the flagged path, turned left and headed for a cairn, where we paused for a team photo (96mins)

New boy Steve Brearley is on the far left

We turned right at the cairn and followed a well-beaten path and reached the distinctive white shooting hut on our left (129mins). The path now went to the right of the hut and past a new or refurbished grouse butt.

No sign of grouse or peasants

We were now on the Snake Path heading for Hayfield. After going through a metal kissing gate (139mins) we passed a copse on our right known as Twenty Trees (although there are only 19 of them)

Looking beyond Twenty Trees down to Hayfield

The Snake Path now took us down to Kinder Road where we turned right (155mins) and continued downhill passing the former Hayfield Grammar School on our left.

This was founded in 1604 and built in 1719 – 26 years before Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite Rebellion.

Where Kinder Road went right we turned left and left again to cross a bridge over the River Sett.

From the bridge over the Sett

After passing St Matthew's Church on our right (161mins) we turned right and crossed the A624 via a pelican crossing. We turned left, passing Hayfield bus station on our right and reaching the A6015 linking Hayfield with New Mills. Here we turned left and The Kinder Lodge was 20 yards on our left (164mins). We joined Jock and Milly for pints of cask bitter in the beer garden. They had walked down from The Sportsman on Kinder Road.

Leaving Chris, Dean and Mark behind to carry on drinking, we continued on the final leg of our journey. Retracing our footsteps past the bus station now on our left we continued to a sign on our right marked Calico Trail (167 mins) and emerged on the far side of the River Sett to enter the Carnival Field where we stopped at two handy benches for lunch (169mins)

Beyond the Carnival Field we turned left and then right into Bank Vale Road (174mins). The path then took us through a wooden gate (180mins) before taking a left fork uphill (183mins). We then joined The Giggle Gaggle Path, nicknamed more than a hundred years ago because of the crocodile of mill girls walking to and from their factory at Clough Mill, Little Hayfield.

After going over a wooden stile (199mins) we reached a point where two paths crossed and we went right. We then turned left and immediately right over a stone step stile. The path went left and we crossed a wooden stile (212mins)

Carrying on we crossed another wooden stile (218mins) and reached the ford we had crossed earlier that morning (220mins). We were then able to retrace our earlier footsteps to emerge opposite the pub (228mins)

Six of us then had a final drink outside in the sunshine overlooking the inn's giant waterwheel.

Next week's walk will start at 9.40am from the free car park overlooking Bollington Recreation Ground on Adlington Road SK10 5JT. Our route will pass the orgasmic pie shop of  F. Smith for those wishing to stock up for our journey. We will be aiming to knock the froth off a couple of pints at the reopened Robin Hood, Church Lane, Rainow SK10 5XE before returning for a final drink at The Vale on Adlington Road, Bollington SK10 5JT

Happy wandering !