21 Jan 2026 Gawsworth to Macclesfield Leader: Kevin, Length of walk: 10 miles, Driving distance: 13 miles, Number walking: 17
Parking by Gawsworth church, SK11 9RJ
Click here to see the route
The weather forecast was for rain and wind throughout the day. The walkers prepared for this but felt at the end of the walk that they had fared better than expected. One area where their experience was worse than expected was the prevalence of mud where the recce had indicated that there was none. This was disappointing.
After two miles of walking across level fields, roads and Danes Moss the group stopped for coffee and lemon drizzle cake on picnic tables by the Macclesfield Canal. The next two miles followed the canal towpath before the group climbed up the road to Macclesfield golf course. The area selected on the recce for lunch was an open field overlooking Macclesfield, the Cheshire Plain and the edge of the Peak District. On the actual walk the wind was so strong that the group took lunch sheltered in scrubby woodland next to the golfers. The views were in any case limited by the rain and mist so there was no point exposing the walkers to the gusts and rain.
After lunch the route went down to Langley, across the fishing pond and then covered a long uphill stretch to Ridge Hill and the walk down to Sutton.
After leaving the village, the route followed the muddy path alongside the leat that takes water into Sutton reservoir. This was full on the day with excess water gushing down the overspill.
Given the limited amount of leaf cover along the route, the leader explained at various times that walkers should consider taking toilet opportunities. His suggestions were almost always ignored but no-one seemed too distressed and, remarkably, no-one fell over in the mud that shouldn’t have been there.
