Tale of Three Shires
Above: Rock
Above: waterfalls
I SUPPOSE I'm very lucky having the Goyt Valley, Axe Edge, and the moors around the Cat and Fiddle Inn just a short distance from my home in Buxton. I've spent many happy days exploring this wonderful landscape. For this circular walk, we start at the Cat and Fiddle and visit the secluded hollow of Three Shire Heads, where Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire meet at an old packhorse bridge. The highlight of the outing is an ascent of the prominent peak of Shutlingsloe, with its great views across the deeply cut-valleys and ridges of the western fringes of the Peak District. It's a walk I've done on numerous occasions, and one of which I never tire. Pick a dry, sunny day and you won't be disappointed.
1: From the Cat and Fiddle, the second highest pub in England, head south along a bridleway crossing open moorland, where you have views west to the conspicuous cone of Shutlingsloe. The wide path eventually passes the top of Cumberland Clough, which we will ascend on the return leg, then crosses Danebower Hollow to meet the A54 Buxton-Congleton Road. Beyond the road a path drops down heather-covered slopes past a chimney and a few crumbling buildings, relics of the days when stone was extracted from Reeves Edge on the hillside opposite. Here, on the moors of nearby Axe Edge, the infant River Dane rises and can be followed south along its western bank to the old packhorse bridge at Three Shire Heads, also referred to as Three Shires Head. Tucked in a hollow, surrounded by bracken and heather-clad slopes, this is a seductive place to pause and explore the river that dashes under the bridge before tumbling over a series of cascades into Pannier's Pool, named after the bags that were slung on each side of the packhorses Highwaymen, coiners and lawbreakers used this borderland as an escape route into the neighbouring county to avoid arrest. Its secluded nature made it a popular venue for cock fighting, and many a bare-knuckle prize-fight also took place here.
2: From the bridge a bridleway, the route of an old packhorse way, climbs south-west around the southern flanks of Cut-thorn Hill where you get good views left down to Gradbach and the distant Roaches skyline. The track eventually joins a narrow hill road at a wooden gate opposite Cut-thorn cottage. From a stile just right of the cottage follow a footpath that gently ascends through grassy pastures. Shutlingsloe dominates the scene ahead across Wildboarclough, a wooded valley of open pastures and scattered hill farms and cottages clinging to small terraces, making it perhaps one of the most attractive parts of the National Park.
3: Once across the A54 Buxton to Congleton road, head past a small stone barn and follow a footpath down through pastures to join a narrow road dropping into Wildboarclough, passing the impressive building on the right that was once the village post office.After crossing the bridge over Clough Brook the road leads left to the Crag Inn, providing a welcome break for refreshments. Just before you reach the inn, take a farm access lane that curves up right to meet a waymarked path leading left up the steep eastern slopes of Shutlingsloe. A short but easy rocky scramble through the summit crags finally lands you at the trig point at the top of Shutlingsloe. At 1,660 feet/506 metres, Shutlingsloe is one of the shapeliest hills in the area, and on a clear day you can appreciate the panoramic views embracing the dark profiles of the Staffordshire moorlands and the Whetstone Ridge backed by Axe Edge. Across to the west, the Welsh hills and Merseyside are often visible, while to the north the rolling hills of the conifer-clad Macclesfield Forest tilt towards the Cheshire Plain, where Jodrell Bank radio telescope can be seen.
4: Instead of returning down the steep slopes, head north and descend the constructed rocky staircase, taking care on the steps, before a path alongside a wall crosses High Moor, overlooking looking Macclesfield Forest. In Norman times this royal hunting forest stretched for 15 miles/24 kilometres from Marple in the north to Bosley in the south. Now all that remains from before legal disafforestation and enclosure of this vast tract of royal forest in the 17th century is the lonely Forest Chapel hamlet, at an altitude of 1,198 feet/365 metres. After about 300 yards/275 metres, fork right and follow a footpath that contours round the north-eastern slopes of Shutlingsloe to rejoin the ascent route. At the tarmaced lane, swing left to Banktop Farm, where a track, which soon becomes a path, leads north to join a narrow lane just west of Clough House. Rising east from Clough House is a deep wooded clough down which Cumberland Brook rushes to eventually merge with Clough Brook.
5: Just above Clough House pass through a gate, cross a footbridge over Cumberland Brook, then head up grassy slopes to the narrow wooded section of Cumberland Clough. From here you can look back at the towering Shutlingsloe before following the stony path, overlooked by Cumberland Cottage on the left. You eventually arrive at a ford at top of the wood above a small waterfall. Ignore the track veering back right and instead branch left up a path alongside the brook, eventually climbing up the open moorland, where you can enjoy great views of Shutlingsloe. When you reach the Danebower Hollow bridleway, turn left and follow the footpath back to the Cat and Fiddle.