Bollington Circular walk

Wednesday 9th April 2014.

Another early start for me, a bus and a tram to Timperley towers, the home of Martin, todays guide and organiser and our chauffeur to Bollington Cheshire.
Along with JJ, we 3 eventually met up with Allan and John from the LDWA plodders section. I say eventually because the traffic was crawling and the others were in the wrong car park in Bollington.
 We started walking at around 10.50 am through a municipal park where preparations looked on going for a cricket match. It was a warm day, very pleasant.
On the way up hill to our first high point White Nancy, we passed under a really high aqueduct which held the Macclesfield canal. Quite a construction.
Once into open countryside John decided that he would show us his latest skill of backwards skiing.
Quite a steep and wet slope brought out the best of John as his practice runs gained momentum and his shorts gained military colours.
Martin offered John some advice about needing new shoes only to find out that they were in fact absolutely brand new. Mmm.

White Nancy is a monument built at the end of the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

 Here John is practicing backwards skiing whilst all the “P” takers are laughing.

White Nancy

It’s quite a fine ridge with stunning views over rolling hills. Quite a breeze on top almost had me donning a windproof but as it was quite warm i resisted.
The next top was an un-named trig point along the Saddle of Kerridge at 313M. (Great name that).
Then another slippery decent down towards the Cat and Fiddle road.
A brew stop was called for and the Aye’s had the majority. A grassy bank in the lee of the wind was found where Martin produced the infamous fudge brownies.

 Un-named trig point 313 metres.

Brew stop, a must have every 2 hours in case we fall asleep.

Over the Cat and Fiddle road the path was another up and became part of the Gritstone trail. The trail has been on my to do list for ages and i admit that it is indeed in fine country. More and more it looked like the Yorkshire Dales landscape. (Except of course it is in posh Cheshire).

Carrying on following the trail it wasn’t long before Teggs Nose came into view. Strange name. Tegg’s nose is a hill within a country park. It was once a working quarry where the stone was used to build the small surrounding villages, mills and reservoirs.
Some historical quarry plant has been preserved and is available for kids and bigger kids to play on. Another decision was taken here to utilise the stone benches and have lunch. Numerous dog walkers past us and numerous dogs tried to pinch our lunches. Yes, and another piece of fudge brownie was supplied.

The views on the steep way down from Tegg’s nose are quite spectacular. Across the Macclesfield forest with the reservoirs around Langley village and of course the dominant feature of Shuttlingsloe.
Great crested Grebe, Tuffted Ducks, Mallard and Canada Geeese could all be seen as we crossed the dams and the sound of Chiffchaffs everywhere.
Parking must be an issue for the residents here as a not too polite sign was passed.

 View across Mac Forest and the top of Shuttlingsloe

 Reservoirs around Langley

 Crossing Tegg’s Nose and Bottoms reservoirs.

 No Parking along Bottoms reservoir.

 Heading through Langley village some  folk had memories of Tarfside for some reason. It must be St Dunstans. We passed an old mill which now was in a poor state and had once been a part of the silk printing, dyeing and finishing trade. The beautiful Langley Hall was passed with a build date of 1696 displayed on a cartouche above the doorway. The hall is now apartments.

 Langley Hall Cartouche.

 Through the village and back into open country we had a brief boggy section where some took the high road and some splodged through. JJ and i had dry feet. Views still extensive as we crossed beside the Macclefield golf course to meet up with the Macclesfield canal.
It wasn’t too long before that magical 2 hours came up again and so with a plan in mind Martin headed for a known bench. Only to find out that the reserved sign had been removed and replaced by a lady and a young lad. Very inconsiderate we thought as we had to sit down on the canal side.
We watched a Heron for a little while only to realise that it was eyeing up day old Mallard chicks. The Mallard was not at all happy and it looked to us as though she only had one chick left.

At one point the tow path crosses over to the opposite bank and a good example of a horse crossing bridge was examined.

The horse which would have been towing the narrow boat in years gone bye didn’t have to be untied to reach the opposite bank as the design of the bridge allowed the rope to traverse without getting stuck. Clever stuff.

All too soon Bollington was upon us and a steep drop from the aqueduct we went under at the start of the walk was negotiated. It had  been a grand day. Good weather and good company.
Thanks Martin for organising it, and other blog postings will be found on both Martins and JJ’s blogs at some point.

Just under 6 hours hence the 3 stops for sustenance. 575 metres of "Up” and 19km in length.

Map not stolen from Martin, but still not from Satmap yet.