David and Jacinta's Walks- 2025

Chinley, New Allotments and Whiterakes We fancied a short walk on the bank holiday Saturday and Chinley fitted the bill. It's not too far from home, and there's been a parking space for us every time we've been there. We chose the gentle way up, along Stubbins Lane and Over Hill Road, turning up the bridleway just past Throstle Bank. We'd seen common buzzards from Over Hill Road about a year ago, but none were around today, sadly. The bridleway passes thorough the "New Allotments" and a quick and lazy search with Google didn't really shed any light on the origin of the name- the OS map shows the area as heath or rough grassland. There's a mention here , but it just relates to the square on the OS map itself. The view of Kinder was great, and it's always good to spot the shooting lodge and its little outhouse from any walk. Mill Hill, the edge of Kinder and the shooting lodge We crossed over to the east side of the Chinley Churn ridge, descending pa...

Around the Hills of Hayfield We were aiming for a slightly longer walk on Wednesday and chose a trip around the hills of Hayfield as it seemed to offer a mix of old and new landscapes. Parking in the familiar setting of Bowden Bridge, the route then took us up to the moorland by a different way, to a col on the flanks of Mount Famine. Trackside monolith, South Head and Mount Famine The views were wonderful and the morning mist had cleared from the hill tops. We worked our way down to Peep-O-Day farm and then up to Higher Hills Cottage, admiring the smart new hen house on display at the front of the house. Neither of us had noticed the mouse carved into the gatepost of the cottage before. Higher Hills Cottage gatekeeper We were then taken down to the main road at Birch Vale which provided an excellent chance to nip into one of our favourite haunts, the Sett Valley café. Duly refreshed, we began again, this time to walk up to the route to Lantern Pike. We met one of the local residents w...