Lantern Pike, Birch Vale

(S/E) Turn left (North) and walk up the road from The Pack Horse Inn towards Mellor. Ignore the footpath heading off to the right along the drive of Windy Ridge, but take the next turning on the right (North-East), a walled byway that leaves the road obliquely and descends gently with views to Lantern Pike and Kinder Scout.

(1) When you reach the road (Briargrove Road), turn right (downhill) and walk down to the bottom of the valley, passing several farmhouses. Beyond the stream, follow the road uphill to a triangular junction.

Take the no-through road ahead, and walk past Aspen-shaw Hall. Beyond Feeding Hey the road, no longer tarmacked, continues uphill to meet another similar track at a T-junction.

(2) Turn left (North) and follow the track to a fork. Take the right-hand track, which descends to cross a small stream, then climbs gradually to a gate. Walk down the left-hand side of the field to the corner, where six routes meet.

(3) Follow the Pennine Bridleway sign towards Hayfield, which follows a track across the field, bearing right towards Lantern Pike. In the far corner of the field, go through the gateway and follow the walled track beyond.

Take a path uphill through the heather on your right and follow it to the topograph at the summit of Lantern Pike. Beyond the topograph, follow the ridge as it descends to a wall.

(4) Turn sharp left (East) and follow a stony path downhill alongside the wall to return to the Pennine Bridleway. Turn right (South) and follow the track, which shortly joins a metalled driveway and leads steeply downhill past Sunny Side to Sitch Lane.

Take a few steps to the right then turn left (South-West), still following the Pennine Bridleway, down the drive to Hegginbottom Farm. When the driveway goes round a hairpin bend to the left, take the bridleway straight ahead and follow it down to the road at Spinner Bottom.

(5) Turn left (West) and cross the River Sett. Turn immediately right (South-West), beside a motor repairer’s premises. Follow the drive to the gates of another industrial premises, where you turn left along a narrow path that follows the fence then bends left to the Sett Valley Trail.

Turn right and follow the Trail for 500 yards to Wilde’s Crossing. Continue for a similar distance and cross High Hill Road, continuing along the Trail beyond.

(6) Cross Watford Bridge, then turn right (West) off the Trail along a path that runs alongside an industrial unit. Turn right to exit the industrial estate.

Turn left and cross the River Sett to a T-junction. Turn right and follow the road for 100 yards, then cross and turn left up Watford Road. Follow the road round a left-hand bend and continue uphill with houses on both sides.

(7) Opposite Parkway, turn right (North-East) into Watford Lane. Pass a house on your left and go through the gates of Will Hey Farm. By the house, turn left through a way-marked gate and walk past a paddock and then up the left-hand side of a field.

In the top corner, turn left over a stone stile where two walls meet. Follow the wall then cross a stile on your right into a driveway, which you follow through a gate on your left.

(8) When the drive meets another, cross the stile opposite, and head for the right-hand corner of the field beyond. Go through a hand-gate and walk up the right-hand side of the field to the road. Turn right and follow the road for the short distance back to The Pack Horse Inn. (S/E)

Some rocky paths, and a couple of moderate climbs. May be muddy in places 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.