Start & End : Bridgend Centre, 104, Palmerston Street, Bollington, Cheshire (SK10 5PW).
(S/E) With your back to the Bridgend Centre, turn right and proceed along Palmerston Street (B5090).
After approx.100 yards you will pass a car park on the left.
(8) Continue up the road, past Church Street and straight across the mini roundabout. A few steps further on, take a gentle fork right to carry on along Ingersley Road. Head past the ‘Poachers’ pub, originally called ‘The Masonic’, the road curving to the left. You now start to climb up Smithy Brow and looking to your left you will soon see ‘The Nab’ rising above Sowcar Fields (B).
At the fork turn left into Spuley Lane, following the sign to Pott Shrigley, and after 100 yards, you will see a signpost on the right into a field (C). Go over the stile and then diagonally left towards a building.
(1) Go over the stile and turn right onto the tarmacked track. This is Hedgerow. Look out for the flower waymark along the way. To your left the Harrop Valley is unfolding before you. Following the track, pass a sign for Winterside Farm on the right. Continue for about 3⁄4 mile until the track peters out in the yard of Bower Clough Farm (D). Proceed through the gate and down the steep, often slippery, slope.
(2) At the bottom cross the first bridge of stone slabs over Mellow Brook, but following the signs, turn sharp right just before the next bridge over the Harrop. After a short distance the path, originally a cart track, enters Harrop Wood.
Originally an ancient woodland, many of the trees in Harrop Wood were felled for the war effort. Since then, however, it has been left to its own devices, and now offers a unique insight into local wildlife.
Cross a stile into the wood looking out for a large wooden musical instrument on your left! A little further along, you’ll find a second instrument (the vertical clonker) (E) . Just beyond it you can see a capped mineshaft through the trees. A little further on, keep an eye out for a faint path on your left. This leads to a waterfall, which you may be able to glimpse through the trees. Here you can sit on the bench and pass the time of day (F).
(3) Back on the track, continue along until you reach a signpost where a footpath heads off to the left. Here, you can choose to continue straight on, or follow this path to the left and take a short cut through Harrop Wood to rejoin the path further on. The short cut is easy walking. The main route involves some climbing, but you will be rewarded with spectacular views across the Harrop Valley and beyond.
''Short Cut : Follow the left-hand path down to the Brook. Go over the stile, cross the bridge and then turn left. Keep walking with the fence and the brook directly to your left. Harrop Brook is now on your left. You will come to a gate with a stile to the right and a quaint little dog hatch. There is a capped mine close by on the left.
The path now leads upward and then levels out for a while. Where it forks, follow the lower path. At the next fork, go left and descend to a stile. You've rejoined the main route at waypoint (5).''
Otherwise, continue straight ahead up the track and ignoring the path on your left, take a right hand stile next to a farm gate. Proceed until the track ends at a field and turn right, following the footpath sign over a stile in front of a facing gate. Follow a sometimes boggy track, crossing a stile and carrying on forward into a lane which brings you into the farmyard of Harrop Fold Farm.
(4) Turn left into the farmyard, and left again past the house to approach a facing stile. Stay right of the wall and fence and, keeping forwards after the next stile, go downhill and over the footbridge. Climb up the steps over the stone wall. Climb upwards, with a fence on the right towards Further Harrop Farm (G).
and (H).
Turn left immediately before the farm, following the wall and keeping left of the buildings. Head towards a sign and stile in the field then continue ahead along this track and over a second stile, bearing right before the old wall, then over a stream. Turning left, cross a facing stile. The well-defined track leads straight ahead, with a wall on the left, and spectacular views all around. Crossing a field and over a stile, go straight on along the path through the trees.
(5) Note the short cut path joining from the left, and eventually drop down to a stile. A steep drop brings you to cross stepping-stones over the brook and after climbing the bank you will emerge onto the hillside. Walk downhill to join the track and turn right along it. As you climb up the hill you will see ‘White Nancy’ atop Kerridge Ridge, which rises above Blaze Hill in the foreground. If the conditions are right, you might see the Welsh Hills rising in the distance towards the West. (I)
Go through the small gate next to the farm gate and continue along the track, crossing over a cattle grid. Ahead are the buildings of Berristall Hall Farm.(J)
(6) After about 50 yards leave the path and walk diagonally left towards a corner fence. You’ll see two small ponds ahead as you descend the slope. You are now following the Gritstone Trail. Continue in the same general direction, crossing over the stream on the stepping-stones. Go through a gate and then follow a path (sometimes quite muddy) between two fences, then through another gate. Follow the path downhill and through a gate just in front of Harrop Brook, then cross over the bridge (K).
(7) Climb up the hill following the signposts. Cross the wooden walkway across boggy ground and you will come to a wire fence with a gate to the right. Go through the gate and across the field with the wall to your right. The building on your right is the former ‘Cheshire Hunt’ pub.
Carry on diagonally across the field to go through a gate in the wall back onto Hedgerow. Turning right, follow Hedgerow until it meets Spuley Lane, (waypoint (1)) where a left turn brings you back to Smithy Brow. Descending back to Bollington, you will see the buildings of Sowcar Farm overlooking Sowcar Fields and Harrop Brook. (L)
(8) Retrace your steps back towards the Bridgend Centre, and, just after the butcher’s shop, take a right turn down Queen Street, the top of which is called Defiance Brow. (M) As you reach the bottom you will cross over a millrace. You are now following the path of Harrop Brook again, as it meanders behind the houses and emerges to flow under the bridge at Palmerston Street. Shortly afterwards it joins the River Dean, behind the Bridgend Centre, and you are now back at the start of the walk. (S/E)
