Wednesday 4 June 2025 - An Evening walk around Marple and Mellor with SWOG

It was a pleasure to join over 20 folk from SWOG (Stockport Walking and Outdoors Group) on a pleasant evening for a short stroll.

Starting from the car park by the Midland in Marple Bridge, we headed up the track and over towards Roman Lakes, passing the remains of Mellor Mill en route.

A steep climb that I more normally do in reverse on a bike took us up to Linnet Clough Scout Camp, and a wooden sculpture of Lord Baden-Powell.

There are several climbing frames and a go-kart track to keep the scouts busy. There were none in residence today.

Being quite high up here, we admired the views towards Greater Manchester.

Nice undulating paths lead us towards Mellor Church.

There are a couple of fields of vineyards here. An experiment. 'Marple Wine'?

I'd not been inside the church since Paul Brunn's funeral in 2012. Is it really that long ago!?

I usually pass this way by bike on a different track to the path we used tonight, so I wasn't familiar with some of the surroundings of the church. Apparently human activity here can be traced back for 10,000 years. The archaeological finds are recorded on information boards and in reconstructions.

Clearly in days past Campbell must have modelled for this sculpture.

The Round House demanded further investigation. Sue would have been quite happy to nod off for the night at this point.

That left us with a short stroll past a buttercup field of vines and then some very posh housing, back to Marple Bridge.

There's a working waterwheel in the town centre, and the Midland pub is right next to the River Goyt.

A pleasant 6.5km outing with 170 metres ascent, taking a leisurely couple of hours - a fine way to spend a summer's evening.

There may now be at least a week's hiatus in these diary entries due to a very full list of commitments as a result of which I'll find it easier to write up the walk reports in a week's time.