Length:
24.9 km (15.4 mi) [For a shorter or longer walk see below Walk Options]
Ascent/Descent:
784/892m
Net
Walking Time: 6 ¾ hours
Toughness:
8 out of 10
Take the Bus Line 16 at 09.45 from Buxton,
Market Place, Stand A (also calls at: Terrace Road, Colonnade, Pavilion
Gardens, Park Road, Bishops Lane and at Burbage, Christ’s Church), arrives
Upper Hulme, Old Buxton Road at 10.03.
Return to Buxton either with Bus Line 58 (at 16.15, 17.15, 17.45 and 18.45) or by train (longer journey, xx.01
until 23.01).
This walk is basically
the reverse of Macclesfield to Leek, walked by some last year,
BUT is much shorter and has a proper bus shortcut at the end AND includes the dramatic Hen Cloud!
A tour de force of highlights in the
Staffordshire/Cheshire borderlands within easy reach of London.
You rise through the tight valley of an arm of the Upper Churnet River to then ascend the quite sensational Hen Cloud, a tilted standalone rockface, for stunning views of the Staffordshire Plain as well as the route ahead over the famous gritstone escarpment of the Roaches, part of a 6-kilometre curved ridge which you follow all the way to the fascinating viewpoint of the Hanging Stone.
You rise through the tight valley of an arm of the Upper Churnet River to then ascend the quite sensational Hen Cloud, a tilted standalone rockface, for stunning views of the Staffordshire Plain as well as the route ahead over the famous gritstone escarpment of the Roaches, part of a 6-kilometre curved ridge which you follow all the way to the fascinating viewpoint of the Hanging Stone.
From there drop steadily through Back Forest into the very scenic Dane Valley
by Gradbach Mill and enter Cheshire. Ascend out of the valley up across a modest hill with quiet pastures and cross
into the scenic Wildboarclough, with fine views ahead of the hardest ascent of
the day: up the imposing ‘Cheshire Matterhorn’: Shutlingsloe.
An easy descent down the other side leads to a crossing of High Moor (on a good
path) to the rim of the wide bowl of the Macclesfield Forest. Descend through
the enchanting wood, then pass a string of reservoirs fed by the Bollin Brook
and commence one last climb up The Hollins, a modest hill with fine views over
the Cheshire Plain and down into Macclesfield before the drop into the historic
Silk Town, with its many tea options.
Walk
Options:
Omit the ascent of the
striking hilly outcrop of Hen Cloud: cuts 1.0 km and 50m ascent.
Cut the out-and-back to the Hanging Stone (cut 880m).
Cut the out-and-back into Lud’s Church Chasm, a unique deep mossy
cleft (cut 800m).
An Alternative Route on Shutlingsloe avoids the last rough and steep bit
of the ascent by skirting the summit (cut 45m ascent).
Bus Line 14 (Langley – Macclesfield, (hourly, last bus at 17.27) enables
a finish in Langley (cut 3.6 km/2.4 mi and 95m ascent).
Lunch:
The Crag Inn will be open
12.00-16.00, but sells no food (crips or nuts maybe...), so: Picnic.
Tea: The Leather’s Smithy
in Langley (4.9 km/3.1 mi from the end of the walk); St. Dunstan’s Inn in Langley
(3.7 km/2.3 mi from the end of the walk); The Dolphin in Macclesfield (1.0
km from the end of the walk). Numerous options in the centre of Macclesfield.
For walk directions, maps, height
profiles, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.388
3 comments:
Crag Inn checked: they will be open.
trials and tribulations of long term walk posting: this is the last chance (ever?) to do this walk starting from Buxton, as Line 16 will be replaced on the Buxton - Leek stretch by line 108 next Monday, and that will not have a morning service. lucky escape...
5 new arrivals compared to yesterday, but one household of 4 did not join the walk to instead walk Sunday's walk, in reverse from the Monsal Dale bus stop (some of them are going back on Sunday and had walked Macclesfield to Leek last year). So n=12 walkers on this walk. The weather was exactly as forecast: low cloud as we woke up, still cloudy as we left Buxton on the bus, but slowly improving to a sunny afternoon.
Nothing much to report, other than it's a fantastic walk, all the way. We stopped at Gradbach Mill for picnic lunch, then at the Craig Inn for a drink. 1 walker with a cold negotiated a lift from there to Macclesfield, the rest gamely went up and over Shutlingsloe and into Macclesfield. We finished 1 km short of the station at The Dolphin for a drink and boarded the last bus across the moors from there.
w=cloudy-then-sunny
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