CYCLING IN THE PEAK DISTRICT

21 ROUTES ON LANES AND TRACKS IN AND AROUND THE NATIONAL PARK by Chiz Dakin

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS, OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL www.cicerone.co.uk © Chiz Dakin 2017 Second edition 2017 ISBN: 978 1 85284 878 1 Reprinted 2021 (with updates) First edition 2011

Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing using responsibly sourced paper. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Route mapping by Lovell Johns www.lovelljohns.com © Crown copyright 2017 OS PU100012932. NASA relief data courtesy of ESRI

All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.

Acknowledgements To Reuben, for your patience, support and love. Without you, this book may not have made it off the starting line and your ongoing encouragement and critical opinion has been a constant rock of support. ‘1st edition thanks’ to Cycling UK (CTC at the time) and Sustrans for their help over a footpaths issue; Alastair (Yorkshire Water) for aiding con- cession to cycles on the Ewden track; Rob and Emily (NT) for help with making routes through Bobus Moor/Lyme Park practical and Andy, John and various members of Oread Mountaineering Club for route testing/ being photo models. For the 2nd edition, thanks also to Craig (NT W Yorks/Marsden Moor) for renewing the NT concession to responsible cyclists across Bobus Moor after the PBW link wasn’t developed as originally planned; to NT Lyme Park for opening up the Cage Hill route to cyclists; to the Canal and River Trust for welcoming cyclists to canal towpaths (and dropping that irritating permit!) and to Georgia and the staff at Cicerone who have been so patient with me during editing and for their work on the new (and hopefully easier to use) maps. And finally to Rob – for ‘JFDI!’

Front cover: Crossing the Ogden Brook near Tintwistle on the Tour de Peak District (Day 3) A6 26 Offerton Route 5 – Middlewood loop via Lyme Park Green R

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67 Cycling in the Peak District

The Italianate mansion at Lyme Park

Rise up a stone-cobbled track through shady woodland, with a shallow stream to the right near the start, for just over 1km. You may smell the fresh pun- gent aroma of wild garlic early on. As the track gets higher, the valley begins to open out, with good displays of bluebells in spring. The stone track ends with a wooden gate into The Knott car park. Follow the tarmac access road over a gentle rise and downhill over a cattle grid to reach the main car park of Lyme Park and an information centre.

Lyme Park is a National Trust property that was previously owned by the Legh family between the 14th century and 1946. In the early 18th century it was extensively redesigned by Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni, taking a style similar to that of an Italian palace.

Continue out to a T-junction beyond the car park. You could just turn left and follow the exit road out past the entry fee hut to the A6. But it’s far nicer to cross straight over the junction (beware of cars turning right) then take a faint unsigned grassy track roughly paralleling the descending road. This soon gains a line of hawthorn trees; follow these leftwards at a fork then merge with another

70 Route 5 – Middlewood loop via Lyme Park wide track just before rejoining the exit road. Continue downhill on this and out to the A6 past the entry fee hut. Note The track from the West Park Gate and the main vehicle access road have long been permitted as cycling routes, but permission/restriction of other options appears to change at short notice. Inexperienced riders may wish to dismount to cross this busy road; otherwise take a dog-leg left then right onto Light Alders Lane. An initially steep hill soon gives way to a gentle rise up this quiet back-road. Turn left at the T-junction at the top and descend back towards the A6. Just 50m before reaching the main road, turn right into Beechway, then left at the end onto Thornway. Take the second right into South Meadway, and wind through residential housing to a T-junction. Turn right onto a traffic-calmed road and descend for nearly 1km, over the Macclesfield Canal to a T-junction at the end of Andrew Lane. Turn right; the road climbs over a gentle hill to a junction just before Doodfield Stores (very easily missed!). Turn left into Torkington Lane, which makes several sharp bends before crossing the Middlewood Way. It’s not pos- sible to access the trail from this bridge, so instead follow the road parallel to the trail for another 250m, to reach an access to the trail between houses on a sharp bend right. Turn right along the trail to head south and back to either Middlewood rail station (2.5km) or Nelson’s Pit (Visitor Centre) car park (3.5km) at Higher Poynton.

The small, pleasant green at the crossroads in Disley

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