Cobden Edge

(S/E) Exit the top car park via the gate at the rear, and walk up the field behind The Pack Horse Inn, before bearing right to the public footpath along the wall.

At the top of the field, join a short walled path to the right of a castellated house that leads out to Castle Edge Road. Turn right (North), past a stable on the left.

(1) At a crossroads of tracks at the corner of a wood, turn left (West). Pass Knapkin Piece Farm on your right. Ignore a footpath on the left, continuing along the track to a junction at the top of the hill (marked by an old cross base in the wall on your right).

(2) Turn left and follow a wide walled track to the top of the hill. Descend the rough track to the road below Mellor Cross. Take the metalled drive opposite (past a large modern barn on the right) and descend past Shire Barn on the left with a golf course on the right. When the track bends left to a property, turn right by a metal barrier.

(3) The track descends steps to a crossroads of paths, where you turn left past a large upright rock. Follow the narrow descending path to emerge between stone cottages onto a level track.

Turn left and follow the track, which narrows beyond the last house. When you meet a wider track by The Cottage, bear left (uphill).

(4) Just after Higher Cliff Farm at the top of the hill, turn left and leave the track onto a signposted footpath, bearing half-right and slightly uphill to a stone stile in the top corner of the field. Walk up the field to a gate into a track.

Pass Shaw Farmhouse then turn right (South-East) along the entrance track before the slurry pits. Bear left beside the edge of the golf course out to the road by the clubhouse. Cross the road and go straight on (Apple Tree Road).

(5) After 60 yards, turn left (North-East) onto the golf course at a public footpath sign. Follow the wall on your left across the course to a gate into a walled green lane. Follow the lane to Whitle. Bear right between the cottages and through a gate.

Cross the stile opposite and walk down between fences to join the track beyond. Walk down the track to the road, and turn left to return to The Pack Horse Inn. (S/E)

A couple of moderate climbs and one rocky descent; wet grass and mud may be encountered after rain.

Pdf link : http://walksfromthedoor.co.uk/i/walks/De...

The Pack Horse Inn
Mellor Road, New Mills,
High Peak SK22 4QQ
Email info@packhorseinn.co.uk
Web www.packhorseinn.co.uk
Phone +44 (0) 1663 742365

• The Millennium Walkway, built at a cost of £525,000 and opened in 1999, featured on the 44p Royal Mail Millennium stamp. It carries the Goyt Way through the Torrs Gorge below the massive retaining wall of the railway opposite Torr Vale Mill.

• Mellor Cross (missing its top since a gale in 2016) was erected by Marple Churches Together in the 1970s and commands a fine view over Manchester and the Cheshire Plain. Edith Nesbit immortalised the surrounding area in The Railway Children.

• The Peak Forest Canal (pictured here near Disley) runs for 15 miles from Dukinfield to Whaley Bridge. Two lock-less halves are separated by the 16 locks of the Marple Flight. The engineer was Benjamin Outram and the canal opened in 1796.

• The junction of Black Lane and Primrose Lane is marked by a large block of stone in the wall, thought to be a medieval cross base. It may be associated with the abbey at Basingwerk, who owned this area in the Middle Ages and built several similar crosses.

• The “Roman Bridge” at Strines is in fact a 17th-century packhorse bridge. Pack-horse bridges are typically less than 6 feet wide, with no (or low) parapets to avoid fouling the panniers of the ponies that once used them. The bridge is Grade II listed.

• The Sett Valley Trail is a 21⁄2-mile cycle- and bridleway from Hayfield to New Mills, following a former branch railway line that opened in 1868 and closed in 1970. The Pennine Bridleway follows the Trail for a mile between Hayfield and Birch Vale.

• Lantern Pike provides superb views to Kinder Scout and Manchester, indicated by a topograph dedicated to Edwin Royce (of Rolls-Royce fame). The hill is owned by the National Trust and its name probably indicates the former location of a signaling beacon.