Whitle

An easy stroll, featuring fine views up the Sett valley to Kinder Scout, and a pretty hamlet of old cottages and farmhouses.

Technical sheet

20154396
Creation:
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  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 2.65 km
  • ◔
    Average duration: 0h 55 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Easy

  • ⚐
    Return to departure point: Yes
  • ↗
    Vertical gain: + 66 m
  • ↘
    Vertical drop: - 67 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 298 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 225 m

Description of the walk

(S/E) Exit the top The Pack Horse Inn car park via the gate at the rear, and walk up the field, before bearing right (North-West) 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.

(1) Turn left (South-West). When the road bends left, turn right up (North-West) the driveway of Castle Edge Farm. (For a slightly shorter walk, stay on the road and rejoin the route described here at waypoint (3).)

Walk past the farmhouse and go through a gate, then at the end of the barn on your right, turn left through a hand-gate beside a field gate. Turn right and walk along the top of two fields. In the third field, beyond a wooden step stile, bear half left to the corner of a wooded garden marked by a large stone.

(2) Turn left (South) here, along the side of the wood. At the bottom of the field, a stile on your right leads out to a driveway. Turn left past a large pond and walk down to a gate, then follow the drive round to the left until you reach the road.

(3) Turn right. (The shortcut carry on from here) Turn left into Apple Tree Road opposite the track to Shaw Farm, by New Mills Golf Club. After 60 yards, turn left 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)

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 232 m - The Pack Horse Inn
  2. 1 : km 0.56 - alt. 296 m - Castle Edge Farm
  3. 2 : km 1.13 - alt. 287 m - Large pond
  4. 3 : km 1.51 - alt. 261 m - New Mills Golf Club
  5. S/E : km 2.65 - alt. 231 m - The Pack Horse Inn

Practical information

One moderate climb; wet grass 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

In the nearby area

  • 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.

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