Bridgend Centre Trail 6 - As the Crow flies, Bollington

Start : From The Bridgend Centre 104 Palmerston St, Bollington, Macclesfield SK10 5PW, England. Grid ref. : SJ 935 779

(S/E) With your back to the Bridgend Centre, turn right along Palmerston Street (B5090). Take the first right into High Street, past the Village Green, and the ‘Queen’s Arms’. Continue uphill and at the top, known as Red Lion Brow, turn left.

(1) Where the road bends sharply left, take the stile on the right by the water trough. Go through a gate up a stone-slabbed path and step to another gate taking the stone path to the right. Emerging by the side of the old Redway Tavern, now Redway House, bear right along the pavement with iron railings on your left.

At the end of the railings, cross the road and over a stone stile in the wall. Follow a slabbed path through three stiles to reach a facing slab stile by the side of a house. The path bends to the right, to emerge by Garrett End Cottage onto Higher Lane.

(2) Bear left along the lane, through gaps next to two gates to pass Endon House on the right. The small road leading downhill opposite Endon Cottage is the Rally Road, ‘rally’ being short for the railway.

Continue ahead for a couple of minutes before taking the lower right fork at the divide. You can see a piece of wood on your left. After crossing the stile next to a gate, you will enter a short grassy track.

To the right you may catch a glimpse of llamas and then you see AstraZeneca, covering 90 acres, with Macclesfield in the distance. In front of you is the shallow valley following the line of Kerridge Ridge, which appears to have been created during the last Ice Age.

At the end of the track descend a few steps and go through a wooden gate on your left into a field, walk along with Swanscoe Farm on your right.

(3) Emerging onto a tarmac track, turn left and after a short distance turn right through a gate, down some steps and turn left at the gate at the bottom.

Walk across a field keeping Lower Swanscoe Farm on your right, through a kissing gate to turn left
onto a lane. Continue along the lane, over a cattle grid to reach Kerridge Road.

(4) Follow this to the right into Swanscoe Lane, passing the entrance to Swanscoe Hall. You are now in Higher Hurdsfield. Keep forward, passing Well Lane on your left then keeping left ahead. At Shrigley Fold immediately fork right along a fenced track. Where the end of the building, continue forward on a grassed path to a kissing gate. The path bends round to the left, down to another kissing gate, over a stream and up to a derelict barn, where paths cross.

(5) Go forward with the barn on your right and after passing a pond turn right to a kissing gate. To your right you may see the quarries of Kerridge Ridge.

Continue, with a hedge and fence on your left. Having gone over a stone stile in a wall, continue straight
ahead, passing between two ponds on the left and one on the right then bearing slightly left to a gate into
a lane.

(6) Cross over the lane and the gate in front, and go diagonally right along the path to a metal gate
by yet another pond. Skirt the pond to a squeezer stile, and go forward with a fence on your left, through a gate to reach Clarke Lane.

(7) Cross over the road and through a kissing gate, crossing the stream and keeping it and the barbed wire fence on the right until you reach a gate leading into Rally Road. Cross Rally Road, go through the stone squeezer stile and over the field to a gate and bridge.

Cross the bridge, continuing forward and then through the gate, turning left down the track past Bobbin Cottage. Continue along the track and bear left when you reach Beehive Cottage.

(8) Cross the canal bridge, turning right to descend the steps to the towpath and continue forward, passing the Adelphi Cotton Mill on your left. Follow the towpath, crossing the aqueduct where you will be passing over Grimshaw Lane.

Continue along the towpath for about half a mile, under Bridge 27 and through a wooden gate on your left. Turn immediately right in front of Aqueduct Cottage and down the Hole i’ the’ Wall Steps.

Turn right through the aqueduct and into the Memorial Gardens. Exit through the gate on the left and then turn right, back to the Bridgend Centre. (S/E)

Start : From The Bridgend Center 104 Palmerston St, Bollington, Macclesfield (SK10 5PW), England. Grid ref.: SJ 935 779

Parking : The Pool Bank car park near the Bridgend Centre is a little further in Palmerston Street.

Public transport : Bus line stop at Aquaduct (Palmerston Street)

Terrain : Can be slippery when wet! Road, Track

Facilities : Toilets, Cafés, Shops and Bar around the Bridgend Centre.

Please report a problem on a Public Right of Way here if it about the description itself please leave a comment here or find more information and walk ideas at Bridgend Centre here.

Younger walkers! Follow the trail of kingfisher markers and see what else you can spot along the way. Plus there’s a ‘Kingfisher’ quiz that will make the walk fly by … download it yourself or pick one up at the Bridgend Centre.

Download the quiz here.