Sunday October 30th

 Lyme Park from Bowstonegate

The clocks had gone back this morning and this, combined with the fact that we'd had a pretty long walk on the east side of The Peak on Wednesday suggested that we had a relatively short walk fairly nearby. Lyme park fitted the bill and Jacinta had hoped to see some deer. Jacinta consulted our rather battered AA guide and found a route that we'd not done which actually passed though parts of Lyme that we'd never been before. We parked up at Bowstones Farm and then walked back down the hill that we'd just driven up! Fortunately, this was the only substantial bit of tarmac that was on our walk and, when we reached Mudhurst Lane we immediately turned left to Cock Knoll Farm, where we were greeted by a gaggle of cows.

Cock Knoll welcoming committee
The path crossed a number of fields down towards Lyme Park's East Lodge. The weather was, for us, quite sunny but there was quite a lot of cloud and rain in some places that we could see.
On the way to the East Lodge- Manchester on the skyline just above Jacinta
Several farms are still working but the Lyme estate has ruins scattered throughout. One place close to a steam had a ruin that might have been an ice house:
Possible ice house
The estate is also criss-crossed by tracks and we turned down one running down from the East Lodge and over the Bollinhurst Bridge.
Approaching the Bollinhurst Bridge track
All of this was completely new to us, despite many visits to Lyme Park with R&DK as they were growing up. Our way skirted the Bollinhurst Reservoir which we'd never known was within the bounds of the park. The reservoir was, like many in the north west, very low. We could now see The Cage which would be on our way back to Bowstonegate.
The Cage on the horizon across Bollinhurst Reservoir
When we reached the North Gate (the main "tourist" entrance from the A6) we turned up the broad path up to The Cage. We were heading into the wind and, despite the picture above, it was quite a steep haul up to the folly. We had a brief rest and a snack it The Cage's lee and admired the view of Manchester in the sun.
A quick break at The Cage

Manchester in the sun from The Cage
The final stages of the walk were down to Lyme House and up to Bowstonegate via Kinghtslow Wood. By now it was raining and, sadly, although we might have glimpsed some deer in the far distance, it was hard to be sure! Despite this, it had been a very enjoyable walk and one to remember when we don't have a lot of time.
5.6 miles, 360m ascent.



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