EAST CHESHIRE RAMBLERS
ON a recent fine sunny but frosty morning Michael Murphy led a party of 22 walkers starting out from Macclesfield.
Our walk first passed through West Park pausing briefly at the large 30 ton erratic (boulder) which was brought to this area during the last ice age
We continued via the Riverside Park then made our way across to the Middlewood Way which was followed north to the wooden footbridge over the Silk Road.
A little beyond we stopped for our morning break at Woods Bridge over the Macclesfield Canal before following the muddy towpath north to Clarke Lane Bridge and here we diverted to follow a short section of the Middlewood Way and later descending via Tinker’s Clough to rejoin the Macclesfield Canal Towpath at Greens Bridge.
After passing the Adelphi Mill we continued over the Grimshaw Lane Aqueduct we left the towpath to follow a short section of
Hawthorn Road to get back onto the Middlewood Way via the Bollington Viaduct which once carried the Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway.
It was opened to passenger traffic in 1870 but was a casualty of the Beeching cuts.
With the former railway lying dormant it was eventually bought by Macclesfield Borough Council and a program of works over the following years developed it into a recreational trail called the Middlewood Way.
Our walk headed east now through Bollington before making the biggest ascent of the day up to White Nancy.
The majority of the group took the more gradual but longer ascent to the summit via the Millennium Steps whilst a smaller group took the hill direct up the muddy and slippery slopes.
White Nancy was our lunch stop by which time a cool breeze had sprung up and there was more cloud around now and the deep blue skies of earlier in the day had turned hazy.
The Return was along
. the Kerridge Ridge where in places a better path surface had been implemented.
The descent at the southern end was muddy and very slippery and so progress was slow.
We joined the B5470 briefly before joining Carlofold Lane before following muddy paths over the shoulder of Cliff Hill and another path down to the B5470.
A short stretch of the Macclesfield Canal towpath was followed to the Buxton Road before heading into the town via Victoria Park.