magazine autumn 2012 magazine autumn 2012 Northern Northern England Berwick-upon-Tweed, Macclesfi eld Forest, Cheshire 06/08/2012 10:53 Route 03 Route 04 master G Distance 16km/10 miles G Time 4hrs G Type River and countryside master G Distance 11km/7 miles G Time 4hrs G Type Countryside NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL

Plan your walk Plan your walk

North G Glossop

Manchester G

G Berwick

G Stockpot G BERWICK-UPON- TWEED CHESHIRE G

G Macclesfi eld

Peebles G Kelso MACCLESFIELD

G FOREST Selkirk CongletonG

NORTHUMBERLAND Ashbourne Stoke-on-Trent Langholm G G G

WHERE: A linear WHERE: Circular walk route from Paxton to around Macclesfi eld Berwick-upon-Tweed. Forest, Cheshire. PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAMY PHOTOGRAPHY: START: Paxton village green ALAMY PHOTOGRAPHY: START/END: Trentabank (NT935530). Alex Salmond, ’s First the bus shelter and the Cross Reservoir, Langley Cheshire’s hill country comes as through the forest to bring you END: Berwick town Minister, has the bit between Inn and immediately turn L (SJ962712). a great surprise to most. East of to Cheshire’s largest heronry at centre (NT996532). his teeth, and within a year or and then R along Merse View TERRAIN: Lanes, tracks and the verdant Cheshire Plain, the a woodland reservoir. TERRAIN: Some stiles and two Scotland will vote on some – a small residential road. Go woodland paths. One long, last-gasp of the Pennines rumbles gates, with two short form of devolution. The idea that through the gap ahead and turn steady climb, and some steeply upwards as an intricate 1. START From the bottom uphill climbs and some the border area will become a L along the wall, following the thin, slippery paths. series of gritstone ridges, deep corner of the car park (SJ962712), riverside walking. demilitarised zone or that walkers footpath as it bends R. Pick up MAPS: OS Explorer OL24; cloughs, green vales and moorland join the compacted path MAPS: OS Explorer 346; will need to pack their passports the lane, signposted to Foulden. Landranger 118. domes forming the western separated from the lane (on Landranger 75. is fanciful, but it’s worth pointing Isolated farmsteads dot the GETTING THERE: Arriva bus edge of the Peak District. This was your R). Keep R at the junction. GETTING THERE: Berwick out that the current tranquillity hills, which include Halidon service 14 links Macclesfi eld once prime Royal Forest hunting The path shortly joins the lane railway station is on the of the border is something of a Hill, the scene of a crushing with Langley (very limited country: the woods and chases over a reservoir creek before east coast mainline, which historical anomaly. Berwick – 14th-century English victory. on Sundays and bank of the Angevin Kings are now advancing to the Leather’s is served by East Coast the English town with a Scottish At the fork above the valley holidays, ✆ 0871 200 2233, characterised by valley oakwoods Smithy pub. Keep L to reach (www.eastcoast.co.uk) football team – is a case in point, bear L downhill, dropping down www.arrivabus.co.uk). The and billowing stands of broadleaf Bottoms Reservoir. Opposite and Cross Country (www. having changed hands 13 times to the metal bridge across the start of the walk is beyond trees amidst conifer plantations. some cottages, slip R into the crosscountrytrains.co.uk) over the years. The landscape’s Whiteadder river. the far end of the village at Today’s Macclesfi eld Forest is a waterside track and cross the train services. Bus 32 runs beauty wasn’t what attracted the Tegg’s Nose Reservoir. Pay & multi-hued arboreal chequerboard dam. Go up the steps beyond Monday to Saturday from English, Scots, reivers and villagers; 2. Pronounced locally as display parking is available across the steep slopes and sharp the footbridge and turn R onto Berwick to Paxton (www. but today this is a breathtaking, ‘wit-adder’, the river enjoys at the Peak Park/United valleys at the source of the River the rough lane beside Tegg’s visitnorthumberland.com little-explored hinterland. This a lovely setting, tumbling Utilities Trentabank car Bollin. This walk explores such, Nose Reservoir. There are good – click on ‘Travel’ link). lovely route, hopping continually beneath high cliffs and ridges park, or nearby roadside. rising to sublime viewpoints views to the wooded arc of EATING & DRINKING: from one country to the other, of sandstone. The Whiteadder EATING & DRINKING: across Cheshire’s highest land Macclesfi eld Forest from here. Queen’s Head, 6 Sandgate allows this underrated area to is a tributary of the Tweed; in Sutton Hall, Sutton that stretch over the Pennines (✆ 01289 307852, www. reveal its full charms. turn the Whiteadder is fed (✆ 01260 253211, www. and across to the Clwydian 2. Just before a gate blocks queensheadberwick.co.uk), by the Blackadder – to the brunningandprice.co.uk); mountains in North Wales. the lane, fork L and cross the

Berwick’s fi rst – and only 1. START From the village green doubtless delight of fans of Leather’s Smithy, Langley Shapely Shutlingsloe – the stepping stones onto a rough L

– gastropub serves local in Paxton (NT935530), a Saxon Rowan Atkinson’s wily, sardonic (✆ 01260 252313). L ‘Cheshire Matterhorn’ – draws track that climbs across the village, take the road between character. Turn L over the bridge the eye before tracks plunge lower fl ank of Tegg’s Nose hill. ▼ ▼ 57-58 WALK36 ROUTEMASTER NORTHERN.indd 1 Ordnance Survey mapping © Crown copyright. AM34/08

Map not to scale. Representation of OS Landranger MAP 75 1:50,000 www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk FINISH Turn R uphill to Paxton Toll R uphill to Paxton Toll 5. Turn House, then dog-leg across and down the lane to . Several shiels (old fishing houses and stores) make for isolated pinpoints on the landscape which here fronting the Tweed, demarcates the border with a majestic sweep. Keep on the river bank, passing below Paxton House – a neoclassical 18th- century mansion. Keep to the bank via a wall to reach the Union Chain Bridge, a miniature suspension bridge across the a rusting, beautiful It’s Tweed. opened in 1820 and affair, spanning 137 metres, making it oldest suspension the world’s bridge carrying road traffic. L on the southern side 6. Turn of the bridge and pick up riverbank path. The route to Berwick – around 9km/6 miles – is straightforward enough. On the downside, you have to pass is a staggering the A1; pay-off view of ’s Royal Border Bridge, with its 28 sandstone-faced . After walking under the bridge, pass road below the Royal and turn L across the charming Jacobean stone bridge to reach Berwick town centre. Route devised by Mark Rowe

4 into England. On the R is bounds road: an innocuous track that marks out the border and runs to a dead end at the river. turn R to 3. At Low Cocklaw, follow the signpost through a Brig – also known farm for Canty’s or Whiteadder as County’s Bridge. The field-edge path drills south before swinging half-L downhill through woodland The path above the Whiteadder. then heads due east along the riverbank – a good place to see and pipistrelle bats Daubenton’s – to the Whiteadder Bridge. R across the bridge, 4. Turn cross to the opposite pavement, descend to the river bank and turn L under it, now heading west on the south side of The weir and its salmon river. run – a concrete staircase installed to aid salmon on their epic journey upstream; partly a conservation measure, partly a boost for fishermen – are more After a bend in obvious now. the river path halts at border at the bounds road. Again, the path is a curious dead end heading north, with no hint of any historical bridge to join up withcounterpart its on the north bank.

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1 itor information: S uidebook ocal ocal 6 l g Sleeping: Northumbrian Sleeping: Vi S Round Berwick Borough (£4.95, by Arthur Wood Berwick Ramblers, ISBN 978 0954533113). Berwick Ramblers ( ✆ 01289 309581, www.northumbriaramblers. org.uk). Berwick TIC, 106 Marygate ( ✆ 01289 301780, www. visitnorthumberland.com). fare such as ocean pie and Berwick crab pot. House B&B, Berwick ( ✆ 01289 309 503, www.7ravensdowne.co.uk), whose owner also runs local geology walks.

c ontinued... START START and walk to the R of house, following the track uphill, past Edrington Castle Farm and along the south and a farm track. To east stands the Cheviot massif itself – a former laval plug that once sat in the middle of a volcano – distinguished by its long, flattened summit. Where the farm lane becomes a minor road, you cross the border back

Ordnance Survey mapping © Crown copyright. AM34/08 5

4

waymarked with a white disc. Remain outside the Access Land boundary fence, rising through an area of immature maples before toying with a meandering woodland-top path. The pyramidal peak of Shutlingsloe soon etches an eye-catching skyline, where the path reaches a wide stile at fenced corner. turn climb this; rather, Don’t R (white disc) down a steep, narrow path alongside a fence. L with the fence, then drift Turn down through the woods to reach a forestry road at bench. L and follow the road over Turn and down the hill, keeping downhill at all junctions and observing signs for Trentabank. At the road at foot of slope, go R for the heronry viewpoint or turn L to return to the car park. Route devised by Neil Coates

FINISH START START 1

3 2 Map not to scale. Representation of www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk OS Landranger MAP 118 1:50,000 is beside the distant hill-top – transmitters) and Shining Tor the highest point in Cheshire at 559m/1,834ft. The hollow way continues to drop towards the deep green vale secreting Wildboarclough village below. 4. At the hamlet of Forest Chapel (tiny St Stephen’s Church here still celebrates a rushbearing ceremony each August), turn R on the tarred edge, go road. At the forest’s L at the fingerpost, dropping to a path junction at fenced Go L, signed for ‘Standing corner. Stone’: a winding path with long section of boardwalk over the headwaters of River Bollin, before climbing steeply to reach the forest car park R to the nearby entrance. Turn road junction and take the gated gravel track opposite. 5. In 400m, fork L beside a small pond up a concessionary path,

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: Cheshire Common ambler S r itor information: S uidebook ocal ocal l Sleeping: Vi S g and the Gritstone Edge by Neil Coates (£7.99, Crimson, ISBN 978 1854586391); East Cheshire Walks: from Peak to Plain by Graham Beech (£8.99, Sigma Leisure, ISBN 978 1850581123). Barn Farm B&B, Rainow ( ✆ 01625 574878, www. cottages-with-a-view.co.uk); Red Oaks Farm B&B, Bollington ( ✆ 01625 574280, www.redoaksfarm.co.uk). Town Macclesfield TIC, Hall, Market Place ( ✆ 01625 504114, www.cheshireeast.gov.uk). East Cheshire Ramblers (www.ramblerseastcheshire. org.uk). c ontinued... At the tarred lane, turn L and accompany this rarely trafficked way up to the main road at Barn. Walker R along this very busy 3. Turn road (wider verge opposite). At the Peak District millstone boundary marker in 150m, fork R up Charity Lane, continuing the gradual climb. Immediately after a sharp bend R, turn L onto the rougher track outside the forest edge. Immense views are revealed north up the line of the South Pennines, and west Pennine Moors to the West beyond the centre of Manchester and across the Cheshire Plain to the Clwydian mountains, with the great disc of Jodrell Bank On telescope pointing your way. the horizon beyond track’s crest (at 477m/1,565ft, the highest point of the forest) are the imposing ridges of Axe Edge Moor (another Cheshire surprise: second-highest pub England’s

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