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Start : From the Brigend Center 104 Palmerston St, Bollington, Macclesfield (SK10 5PW). Grid ref. SJ 935 779
(S/E) With your back to the Bridgend Centre, turn right and proceed along Palmerston Street (B5090). Notice the row of old horse chestnut trees on your left, behind the wall above Pool Bank car park.
(1) When you reach the mini-roundabout, cross over Church Street and carry on in the same direction along Ingersley Road. Follow the road as it curves to the left and starts to climb up Blaze Hill.
(2) At the fork turn left into Spuley Lane following the road sign to Pott Shrigley, and continue along the lane for just over a kilometre to a path signposted to Charles Head, on your right. This point links up with Tree Trail 3.
(3) Go through the kissing gate, climb the steps and continue past the cattle grid and through another kissing gate. Keeping the wall on your left, go forward to join a track. Bear left here and go uphill, past Berristall Hall Farm on your right. As you continue along the track, notice the copse of trees above you on your left, predominantly sycamore and beech. Ignore the footpath crossing the track and carry on ahead to cross over two cattle grids. On both sides there are numerous gorse bushes.
Shortly after a broken wall runs towards the path on the left, look for another broken wall heading straight ahead where the lane veers gently to the right. Follow this wall, keeping it on your right, and continue ahead to drop down. Cross the stream via some stones, then up to a stile in holly bushes.
(4) Follow the faint path round to the right ignoring the path going up to the left. The path bends gently to the left and takes you through Harrop Wood. Throughout the wood, you can see silver birch trees, with their beautiful, papery bark.
Continue forward, with Harrop Brook on your right, to go over a stile next to a gate, leaving the wood. Then go right across the field to cross the bridge over the brook.
(5) Go to your right up the bank and over the stile to re-enter Harrop Wood. Follow the path up and then turn right at the top to join a well-defined track. Continue through the wood along this track. As you walk along this ancient track, you will see rows of trees to your right. Their smooth, grey-green bark has vertical, wavy lines that are silvery in colour. These are hornbeam, which have been pollarded in past times and used for hedge-laying. (A)
Cross the stile at a gate and go forward along the sunken track all the way down, with Mellow Brook on your left.
(6) Bear left, and where Mellow Brook meets Harrop Brook, cross over the slab bridge on the left and climb the hill to go through a gate into the yard of Bower Clough Farm.
Cross over the stile on the left opposite the farmhouse and bear slightly right to pass a telegraph pole. Then cross over a muddy stream bed and follow the straggly, mixed hedging on your left to a stile at the end of the hedge. Continue forward uphill, following the line of the hedge, to arrive at a wooden gate and stile next to Brown House. Turn right on to the track, and just after the house you will see a row of hazel trees down on your right, following the stream. Continue up the track to climb steadily until you reach a farm gate leading to a road (Blaze Hill).
(7) Go left and then cross over the road carefully to turn immediately right into Jumper Lane. Along the lane you will see a plantation of various species of fir trees along the track on your right. Walk along the lane until you come to a fork, where you take the right track, signposted Rainowlow.
At the next fork keep left. Against the high wall of the second house on the left. Notice the hydrangea. At the end of this track before the stone squeezer stile, turn right to cross over a wall and down some steps, to follow the footpath to Bollington. This track soon becomes walled on both sides and passes straight through two gates by the farmyard.
Cross the stone stile at the bottom, and continue forward, with a wall, then a hedge, and then a wall again on your right. Ignore the path off to the left and continue forward. Drop down to a stile by a gate with a stream on the left.
(8) Continue forward and cross a stream coming in from the right. Immediately turn left, passing a little waterfall, and carry on with the stream on your right. Ford the stream at the massive stone slabs, slightly beyond which you can see blackthorn bushes up the bank. Walk forward, with the stream now on your left and continue left onto a farm track signposted Oakenbank.
(9) Cross the stile and turn right (West) along Oakenbank, passing cottages on your right, until the road goes sharply right. Go forward here, over a stone stile next to a gate, and then through a kissing gate into the grounds of Savio House. Follow this track to reach a kissing gate, crossing the drive that is lined with horse chestnut, beech and lime, then through another kissing gate. Now go slightly right across the field, through the gate ahead and down steps, then right along a path.
From the steps, and running parallel with the path on your right, is a row of poplars. Follow the track through the copse, eventually passing a mill race below on your left. Drop down to a gate behind Rainow Mill Cottages and down the steps, where you turn right then forward along Ingersley Vale, passing a millpond on your left. At the bottom, turn right into Church Street.
This point links up with Tree Trail 1.
Continue to the end of the street, (1) where you turn left into Palmerston Street and eventually return to the Bridgend Centre (S/E)
Tourist office
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