Round Manchester Hiking Trail - Day 3

Knutsford to Irlam

Distance: 16 miles

Deer, pheasants, squirrels, goldfinches, soay and hebridean sheep, buzzards

Mid house renovation - a day out to escape the hammering.

We took the tram to Altrincham and had breakfast at the Unicorn before getting the train to Knutsford. The walk goes through the park into Tatton Park grounds which are about 3 miles across and then our onto a quiet lane, with nice hedges and autumn berries. There were a lot of signs - about rutting deer, bluebells, angry trees and just keep out...

We attempted a footpath but it was overgrown with brambles and rhododendrons, so retreated back to the lane, which was lined with dead badgers. The route crosses the M56 link road around a big roundabout and back on to the lanes, which were quiet (unless you're a badger.) We didn't see any goats at the goat viewing area and didn't stop at the seats under the bridge.

We had a sit down at a bench at Dunham Massey and bought some fig chutney in the gift shop.

For very good reasons, we didn't go into Lymm but carried on along the GM Ringway route to Irlam to catch the train.

Round Manchester Hiking Trail - Day 2

Wilmslow to Knutsford

Distance 11 miles

The scaffolder arrived just as we were leaving the house at 7:30am but he said we didn't need to be in so we left him to it.

We took the train to Wilmslow (good luck to the lady needing to get to the court house in St Albans by 2pm) and set off following the Bollin Way and North Cheshire Way.

The went through the grounds of Quarry Bank (NT) and visited Styall village. There was a bit of a detour because a bridge is down, so we walked along a quiet road and a gated lane towards the airport. An interesting walk around the perimeter of the runway, and underneath it using the massive tunnel. It drizzled for a bit just after we'd emerged from its shelter, but it didn't last long. Paths through farmland, meadows and woods led into Knutsford.

Round Manchester Hiking Trail - Day 1

Macclesfield to Wilmslow

Distance 10 miles

Buzzards, squirrels, tame bunny, nuthatches, kestrel, posh houses 

After some public transport shenanigans that resulted in a late start and a fine on the tram (the was subsequently waived) we set off from Macclesfield along the River Bolin Way riverside path. 

The route used footpaths over farmland and along quiet lanes, passing Hare Hill (NT) and Alderley Edge.

Pilgrims' Way - Day 3

Day 3 - Radcliffe to Manchester Cathedral

Distance: 11miles

Weather: damp start, becoming warm and sunny 

From the tram stop, we joined the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal (dis) to go and look for one of the sculptures on the Irwell Sculpture trail of some bullrushes, but we didn't find it. We did find some slippy cobbles and drama ducks.

After following the canal for a bit, (keeping out of range of the Triffidesque Giant Hogweed) followed a footpath alongside some horse fields and woodland to join the disused railway track into Drinkwater Park. We walked along the reservoirs and through some lush grassy parkland, coming out along the River Irwell by the cemetery.  We walked along the flood defences, stopping for a coffee and toast and to change our socks, before heading down to go around the Kersal nature reserve. Lots of birdlife here, including a kingfisher, cormorants, little grebe, great crested grebe, heron, little egrets, goosanders and a lot of ducks and geese. During the day we also saw a kestrel, buzzard and heard a nuthatch.

It was definitely grass cutting day in Salford. We walked along a quiet lane for pedestrians and cyclists between the river and blocks of flats into the city centre to the cathedral and the end of our Pilgrims Way Walk. We sat in the new Glade of Light memorial gardens, which are lovely, and then went to the Printworks to watch the new Resident Evil movie.

Pilgrims' Way - Day 2

Day 2 - Haslingden to Radcliffe

Distance: 14 miles

Weather: warm and overcast, wet at times

We took the tram to Rochdale and then a bus back to Haslingden for day two of our pilgrims walk. This section was very different to the first day, much more off road and less well trodden. A nice rocky path took us up on to Holcombe Moor to the Pilgrims Stone, a memorial to a stone cross which had stood there for centuries (allegedly) before being removed (stolen).

There were some fight-y sheep, a geese fly-by and views of Peel Tower and Manchester and the Pennine Hills in the misty distance.

We entered the firing range area, no flags or warning lights today. We headed across the bogs and down into the valley along a pleasant stony path where thankfully the red sign was just for horse riders to dismount across the stream and not a footpath closed sign. The rain clouds over the nearby hills came to meet us and it drizzled a bit. 

We crossed the road in Affetside and had a sit down outside the pub to eat some toast and wished we'd brought the flask.

The path from here crossed fields and meadows alongside a golf course. There was a very wet gate and a lot of nettles, some snipe flying up out of the water as we passed. Grassy paths alongside a stream led to a lane into Radcliffe where we had a look for some sculptures on the Irwell Sculpture trail in Close Park and went to look at St Mary's church and the remains of a tower - from many angles but not up close because gates.

Pilgrims' Way - Day 1

Day 1 - Whalley to Haslingden

Distance: 13 miles

Warm and sunny

We were an hour later setting off than planned, due to the train in front of ours breaking down, and it was about 1pm when we set off walking. We visited the Church of Saint Mary as it was on the route we were following, but we did not visit the abbey or gatehouse, which was probably a mistake for pilgrims.

Leaving town, the path went up a steep hillside along the edge of woodland, with meadows, sheep fields and views over the valley and the River Calder. Pleasant farmland, quite parkland-y, led to Great Harwood where we joined the Leeds Liverpool canal, which was quite a surprise. The canal was very green and soupy, but there were plenty of ducks, fish and a cormorant.

An aqueduct took us over the M65 and into Accrington - passing a very precariously parked van. Leaving the canal we joined a disused railway greenway, crossing over near a roundabout which was home to a million rats. At least six.

We had a sit down near Tesco for a foot faff and backache break, then continued along the greenway. We saw some deer and got very distracted by the smell from the Holland's Pies factory. The route into Haslingden avoids the main roads by going up along the hillside along quiet lanes. Another sit down at a playground before heading down into Haslingden where we had a short wait near the war memorial for our bus.

Rochdale Way Day 3

Wardle to Shaw

Distance 21 miles

Little lambs, stonechat, fire, oyster catcher, deer, buzzards, midges

We started off the day with a forgotten phone, a near deer encounter and an angry bus driver (which seems to be the default for bus drivers, perhaps understandably.) We got off the bus in Wardle and walked up the lane and on the footpath up someone's drive and under their washing, across the field and on to the stone paved access road to the reservoir car park. The route goes along under the dam wall and around the reservoir and ponds, where there were deer and tufty ducks, before turning up through the woods and up on to the moors.

There are no Rochdale Way signs here, and the route on the map didn't really correspond with any of the paths on the ground, so we headed in the general direction on sheep trods and tracks, ending up at a corner of a field with a big wall and no gate or obvious exit. One wall negotiated, we continued around another wall skirting the hillside on some very dry grass and bracken, then headed up the hill to come down on a clearer path. The path disappeared into bogs, with a bit of backtracking we found some rocks that crossed over the stream and a path with some wooden bridges across the bogs. 

A very eroded path led down the steep hillside, by an air shaft for the Summit Tunnel and over a stream that had at some point quite recently washed most of the path away. After picking our way over this and over a rickety stile, the condition of the path improved and it gently zigzagged its way down through a quarry into the valley. From the partially washed away road at the bottom it was clear how much damage the water had done.

We crossed the canal and headed up the driveway on the other side, passing the farms which have now fenced in the footpath, neatly containing it within the stream / bog, and up on to the moors under Warland Reservoir. Here we stopped on a wide rock for a break and a foot faff (our socks probably didn't dry out much in ten minutes but it was quite nice to take wet shoes off for a bit) while watching the growing plumes of smoke on the horizon.

As we went along the track to Blackstone Edge Reservoir, the smoke and fire on the distant hillside became visible, and there were a lot of fire engines and firemen with fire beaters. Our route took us around the opposite side of the hill, although I did read that a couple of hours later the road was closed and the White House Inn didn't open that evening because the fire was close, and down the roman road towards Lydgate and Whittaker Lane.

The Rochdale Way goes along the lane into the golf course directly to the clubhouse and Whittaker, which is a pretty hamlet of stone cottages, before going down through some oak woods with a green woodpecker, around a fancy farm house with fancy sheep and down towards Hollingworth Lake. There were lots of people here, many coming and going in taxis. Leaving the crowds, we had a rest in the sunshine just off the path, before heading up under the motorway and along the rocky path to Piethorne Reservoir.

The path goes around the reservoirs (Piethorne, Kitcliffe and Ogden) before crossing the road on a sharp corner and up on to the moors to skirt around a come down through the farm at Top O' Th' Hill. We feared the farmer was spreading something brown and unpleasant looking, but he stopped just as we approached. After a bit of hesitation we walked though the farmyard down to the path at the back of the yard, much to the surprise of a chap walking his dog who asked the farmer if you could get down that way, to which the answer was a definite yes you can.

The path (which wasn't as wet or farmyard effluent-y as last time we used it, brings you out at Jubilee Colliery nature reserve, and from here we headed through Dunwood Park into Shaw.