Introduction

All week, Thursday’s forecast has been for a band of rain / snow to arrive around the middle of the day. In hope that the forecast may change, I planned a walk in the hills. I also had a Plan B.

I set the alarm for an early start, and sure enough, the forecast was stubbornly unchanged with rain expected at 11.00am. So, Plan B it was.

By 8.30 am I was at the free National Trust car park at Quarry Bank Mill in Styal (SK9 4LA), just 10 minutes from home.

This may be familiar territory, but to come here when it’s completely deserted was rather novel.

The route I’d chosen was a mix of various places I’ve walked before, but never in one go. The walk was 5.5 miles, and took about 2 hours 15 minutes.

This is a great dog walking route, with just a short section of farmland.

The walk is on OS Explorer Map 268.

Quarry Bank Mill to Twinnies Bridge

It’s eerily quiet at the mill. I imagine that 200 years ago it would have been a hive of industrial action, by 8.45am! But not today.

I set out on the path south from the mill yard, and take the detour past the weir and round the mill pond, with its thin covering of ice.

This is always a lovely riverside walk, and usually busy. A few joggers and dog walkers are around now to share the scenery!

Some trees have been felled and left with statuesque stumps.

The path crosses the River Dean adjacent to its confluence with the Bollin and emerges onto a field.

Before reaching the car park, I took a diagonal right across the field to a wooden bridge over the Bollin and followed the path back along the opposite bank of the river. I follow the Bollin Valley Way signs from here. The path rises and runs alongside Wilmslow Rugby Union Club’s ground before dropping back into the valley to follow a stream over boardwalks and up a pretty clough. The familiar January echoing sound of a woodpecker rattling a trunk as he claims his 2022 territory is a delight.

Morley Green

I crossed Altrincham Road. A short way down Mobberley Road a path on the right led alongside a fairly innocuous looking area of scrub and small trees. I stopped here awhile as it was alive with feeding birds. I suppose this is an advantage of being out so early – the birds are hungry and active after a long night. There were blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares, chaffinches, bullfinches, long-tailed tits and blue tits.

At Morley Green the Bollin Valley Way path crosses a couple of fields. I hoped they would be frozen, but they are just wet.

After crossing another minor road, a track takes me past a small farm, and then reaches another building.

Do you remember when your mom said “your room looks like a bomb’s hit it”. Well I think it literally had in this case.

The track leads on to wards some more fields. When the airport radar equipment came into view I soon left the Bollin Valley Way, turning right at a gate.

After crossing a field, the path heads down to the riverside at a sharp meander.

Back to Styal

The path emerges onto Altrincham Road at the hotel formerly known by the enticingly name “Valley Lodge”, now known as the boringly ordinary Airport Inn.

Crossing the river by the hotel entrance a sharp right turn took me back into the National Trust estate.

From here, the walk is a wonderfully picturesque trail all the way back to Styal. In a few places the valley narrows and the path includes steep steps up to the top and back down again.

It’s best described pictorially!

On reaching Kingfisher Bridge, raindrops were drifting down. The path by the river would have taken me through the Quarry Bank Mill garden, but I went left up the hill past the beech tree graveyard!

As the climb levels off, I turned right and headed across to the Visitor Reception and car park.

At the car, the rain turned to snow! 10.50am.

So, I was pleased to have selected Plan B, because it fitted in superbly with the weather conditions, and it’s a really fine walk, that I’m sure many people would go a long way for the chance to enjoy.

Feeling blessed!

And Finally…

I’ve been looking through lists of the best albums of 2021. This little gem, Homecoming, by Du Blonde is 10 tracks in 24 minutes, and I love it.

This track is “I’m Glad That We Broke Up”.