Thursday December 11th

Tintwistle, Chew Reservoir and Featherbed Moss (David Solo)

Out on my own today, and not wanting to drive too far, so this walk from Tintwistle suited me well. As with the last couple of times that we've done this walk, I used the footpath to the west of Arnfield Farm rather than the bridleway with is a bit unforgiving underfoot. The walk across Boar Flat and Arnfield Flats was uneventful and it was really great to be able to identify the less boggy path across Ormes Moor again. It's always good to reach Chew Hurdles with its new vistas.

The waymarker at Chew Hurdles with views of Dove Stones Reservoir and Alderman's Hill beyond

I stopped for lunch at my favourite spot- sheltered and with a great view of  the track up to the dam and Dish Stone Moss. Now that the best path is familiar, the walk to the Chew Reservoir dam took only 20 minutes. At this point, I wondered about hacking my way directly to the trig point on Featherbed Moss, rather than going to the top of Laddow Moss. This was relatively straightforward on a compass bearing.

The Featherbed Moss Trig

 However, the path to Hollins Clough and Lad's Leap isn't marked on the Harvey map and the low sun made identifying the way off difficult to spot and it soon became clear that I wasn't heading in the right direction! A check with the compass and map got me back on track and getting to Lad's Leap was then straightforward. 

A sunny Lad's Leap

The rest of the walk, above the Didsbury Intake woods and down Tintwistle Low Moor was quite relaxed and, although it was clouding over a little, there were some lovely sunbeams to be seen.

Sunbeams over Tintwistle

An adventurous walk of 10.6 miles with 600m ascent.



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