Nether Alderley to Alderley Edge

No Trouble At T’Mill

This should be the last of my Lockdown 2 local walks and once again the journey to the walk is under 20 minutes. The National Trust mill at Nether Alderley has been closed for most of the year, and parking is no trouble in the small car park which is an ideal starting place for this circular walk up to the Edge and back.

Walk time – 3hrs 45 Minutes including a 15 minute lunch break.

The weather was clear and sunny for 2 hours before intermittent cloud drifted in.

The walk is 9 miles, fairly easy walking with a total ascent of 720ft, 220m. There are several points where the walk can be shortened if time, or tiredness, are a problem! Dogs love it out on Alderley Edge, but much of the rest of the walk is on driveable tracks or farm fields.

OS Explorer Map 268.

Heading Off To Alderley Edge

Walking along the road towards Alderley Edge, Bradford Lane appears on the right, and I head up this wonderful (though quite hard to walk on) cobbled lane.

Where the lane forks, I go left, staying on Bradford Lane which becomes less distinct, but still pretty.

After passing a mobile home park a tarmac road is reached. Turning left brings me out at the National Trust car park, which is full and quite chaotic. The toilets are open too! I cross the car park, take the path which by-passes the cafe area, which is also heaving with folk.

The Edge

I turn left along the track and at the end, follow the sign to Storm Point. After 40 metres or so, I take the lower right track and soon get the well known spectacular views from the Edge. I keep right against a picket fence and head down off the edge.

Mining Activity and Woods

At the bottom I turn right and follow the boundary. I come to the adit (horizontal mine into a hillside), which, with its rickety old rail tracks, always looks like something out of a Scooby Doo cartoon. Today the entrance is completely flooded.

I went on round the boundary, ignored the path to the right and reached a stream. Crossing the stream, I left the boundary path and headed uphill on a well defined path. There is a stand of beech trees rising impressively above me.

Arriving at a crossroads of paths I take the slightly hidden stile on the right. This heads across fields, and then between two ponds. One has a nice reflection of the trees behind.

Farming Country

Following the path round to the left, and ignoring the path off to the right which returns to the NT car park, I went on and joined a drive / track which begins to rise uphill, where a path to the right over a stile is my onward route. At the main Macclesfield Road I was going to head straight over and through Finlow Wood, but the mud was knee deep so I went round the roads and along Finlow Hill Lane until I came to the bench with lovely views, my intended lunch spot. No luck there!

So bench taken, I head straight on, passing a large house and down to a sunken pool, near which a rock afforded a pleasant enough substitute lunch venue. Lurking on the horizon is the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank, looking eerily like an alien space ship.

And if that’s a space ship, what are these, I wonder?

Anyway, having walked on down to Hocker Lane I went left until the road junction at Shawcross, A right turn here took me down past the first farm and I went over a stile to the right before Higher Park Farm.

The path across the fields is well marked, but continuing the supernatural feel, I can’t work out the purpose of this stile, and take the chance of walking straight past it!

The Home Stretch

On reaching the A34, I go straight across – busy road, lorries and fast cars, no footpath, so taking care I hurry to turn right along Bollington Lane. The disused Bollington Pits really are the pits – perhaps they are a trap for the aliens?

Arriving at a hamlet I turn right and take the path on the left of the track and over fields to Heawood Hall, where a strangely unmarked and unmown grass tennis court looks slightly out of place.

I ignore the path off to the right, go round the hall buildings, and cross the Alderley Edge by-pass. The bridge has a plaque celebrating the work of the local rambler who campaigned and fought for a bridge for walkers at this point. Good man Derek Smith!

I cross the field, through a copse and the beautiful Nether Alderley Church comes into view. Looking back, the sun has returned!

I make my way through the churchyard and down the drive where the mill is almost in front of me.

A very pleasant walk…. apart from the aliens!

And Finally

For those who loved the reggae music in the second film, Lovers Rock, in the Small Axe series, last Sunday, this is Janet Kay with Silly Games.