Wednesday 11 June 2025 - GM Ringway Trail Stage 5 - Middlewood to Strines

Starting where we finished last time, outside Middlewood Station on the Middlewood Way, Sue and I disembarked from the Buxton train at 11:20. The rest of our team had either walked this stage already (Rick, Roger, Viv and Steve) or were planning on catching up soon (Paul and Jeanette). Sue still has to complete Stage 1.

Previously, we'd walked out to the A6 road and caught a bus. This time, after about 200 metres we turned right up a marked footpath into Middle Wood.

The hedgerow plants included Hogweed and Cranesbills.

We joined the Macclesfield Canal towpath in Ladybrook Valley.

A bridge was soon reached. We crossed it and doubled back on the other side of the canal before descending to Bollinhurst Brook.

The brook disappears into a tunnel and is crossed by way of several wooden footbridges.

We emerged into open ground running parallel with the brook. This seems to be the middle of nowhere, but it's very close to the sizable town of Disley.

We continued on good, well signed ground, past fields of buttercups, eventually going under the railway that is criss-crossed by today's route.

We crossed the National Trust's Lyme Park boundary and took a path that was unfamiliar to me, all the way to the car park via Crow Wood. A delightful route, including a good bench where we encountered three chaps doing the same route as us, that I would have taken on a visit a few weeks ago had I known of its existence as an alternative to the tarmac driveway.

A little earlier, Sue had found some water loving plants and a mushroom that pretended to be a puffball.

She was still trying to identify fungi as The Cage came into view above us.

There was a good choice of picnic benches and we had no need to utilise the Timber Yard Café for more than a visit to their toilets. Rick had reported that the service was incredibly slow at the café, hence steering clear of it.

After lunch, the GM Ringway route doubled back towards Disley, passing the hall before rising up to The Cage.

An 'erratic' - relic from the ice age - is passed on the way up to what was originally a hunting lodge.

Still on course. The barred windows offer a clue to a more recent use of 'The Cage'.

After negotiating the tricky crossing of the A6 road at the entrance to Lyme Park, our path went steeply through dense woodland, eventually reaching a road that leads to Disley Golf Club, where the inmates were friendly but the mobile café recommended by our earlier encounter with the three chaps near Lyme Hall was closed today.

Leaving the golf course, we went through Stanleyhall Wood to pass a lone chimney in a field.

Without realising, by the time we had walked up Turf Lea Road and The Ridge, we had passed the private house that used to be the Romper pub, we had risen way above Disley. There are good views over the Peak District before the path meanders down to the Peak Forest Canal.

The canal is quite high relative to its surroundings, and a walk along the towpath passes an unusual lift bridge used for private farm traffic.

After helping out a chap who was trying to follow a self guided route and had got confused, we left the canal where it goes over a lane that descends to Strines Road. We deviated from the GM route by taking the prettier option though Springfield Copse, a lovely place looked after by the Woodland Trust..

After crossing the main road, we dropped further to reach Bruce's clock - the subject of a highly detailed information board concerning the clock and the printing industry in this location.

Before the final climb up to Strines Station, we passed a dovecote by the mill pond that I can recall being full of doves. Sadly crows now seem to have made it their home, but I suppose that's better than dereliction.

We arrived at 15:30, and the train to Manchester came on time at 15:37. So we just avoided having to wait another hour. All our transport on these GM trips has run to time so far.

The three chaps were somewhere behind us so would get the next train. On the platform was a lady who had done the same route as us today - she passed us early on and must have gone more quickly than us.

Here's today's route - 13km with 250 metres ascent, taking a little over 4 hours.

We will be walking Stage 6, Strines to Marple by a devious route, on Tuesday 17 June, as planned. Starting with the 10:18 from Piccadilly to Strines.