Bollington, Rainow and The Saddle Of Kerridge

Introduction

Rolo has been staying this week, so despite the wet start to the day, a walk was essential! And by the time I reached Bollington, the rain had stopped and it was lovely weather for a good hike.

This is a regular favourite for me, but there are a number of alternative paths to choose.

It’s a half hour drive from Cheadle Hulme to Bollington.

The walk is under 5 miles with two longish uphill sections, amounting to over 1000feet of ascent. It took 3 hours with the dog.

I knew that there are good, wide, fenced tracks on the Saddle of Kerridge, but it turned out there was little else suitable for dogs to be off the lead. Much of the walk was over sheep pasture.

I usually tackle the hill up to White Nancy first, but for a change, today I walked in a clockwise direction, leaving the Saddle of Kerridge, and White Nancy, till the end..

The walk is on OS Explorer Map 268.

I parked near the junction of Lord Street, Cow Lane, and Chancery Lane. Chancery Lane is postcode SK10 5BJ.

Bollington To Rainow

I headed off up Cow Lane, enjoying the view up to White Nancy.

At the end of the lane, a path leads diagonally across a field. There were several docile cows and an equally docile bull in the field. I was slightly nervous of these cattle, but there was no need to be.

At the top of the field there are the first two of numerous fine views.

Joining the track, I rounded the end of the Saddle of Kerridge, and soon arrived at Waulkmill.

Here’ the River Dean forms a spectacular waterfall.

Beyond the mill, the path heads out across the pasture fields. Thankfully, the path is well paved with stone slabs. There are striking views up to the Kerridge ridge. Rolo enjoyed them too.

At the end of the fields is a pretty, wooded gully.

From here, the path emerges into Rainow village where we crossed the main Macclesfield – Whaley Bridge road

Rainow To Kerridge End

A track leads away from the main road, with glimpses of the river in the valley below.

A little way up the track, we turned off to the right, over a wall, and down across a field, enjoying the colours changing in the trees.

We carried on towards a footbridge over the river. Rolo had a brief splash around in the water.

We went up the steep valley side to reach a road / track. We crossed over the road via a tricky, for Rolo, ladder stile, and continued uphill over the sheep pastures.

At 315 metres, 1040 feet, this is (just) the highest point of the walk. This is the view north-west, along the next section of my route, to the Saddle of Kerridge.

This is the view north back to Rainow.

A little further on, the full splendour of the Saddle of Kerridge lay before me.

From here it was sharply downhill back to the main road at Kerridge End.

The Saddle Of Kerridge And White Nancy

A short road section followed. We were now heading up towards the top of the ridge. It’s a much more gentle slope from this end the ridge, but still steep enough to make us take our time.

Once on the top, one of us hurried on ahead with the high point in sight! Then he looked round and waited for me.

From the top, the 360 degree video is amazing. This starts looking north, with the sun now shining, and pans clockwise over Rainow to the east, and finally Macclesfield and the Cheshire plain to the west.

We also squeezed ourselves onto a trig point selfie!

Rolo was now enjoying resting for portraits!

And you can’t come up here and not have your picture taken in front of White Nancy!

And here’s the monument in full with a silhouetted Rolo.

The final descent is very steep and the rock steps are slippery, but we negotiated it successfully and were soon back at the car.

This is a fantastic walk, taking in all the wonderful sights of the area in a relatively short time. I come back her regularly.

If you’ve never been here, I’d highly recommend it.

And Finally….

Well, there’s only one album for me to showcase this week, the amazing Hackney Diamonds by those resurgent Rolling Stones. How can Jagger be 80?

There are some great collaborations on the album, but this is just The Stones with Angry.