20th January, Alderley Edge in the cold

Plans for an active weekend were well and truly scuppered, all down to my responsibilities as a carer. No matter how much planning I do, unexpected situations crop up and bite my bum – this weekend TWO separate incidents conspired to sabotage my plans. An excellent Tally-Ho! run was missed yesterday, and a 17 mile LDWA walk was missed today.
I needed to get out for a bit of a stretch and Alderley Edge seemed to fit the bill – not flat (not very lumpy either!) and fairly close to home. Ten minutes with a map I had a route planned, 8.5km of footpaths and quiet lanes.
Leaving the car at the Alderley Edge National Trust car park I wandered off south(ish), first following the icy lanes through woodland and then on footpaths over Finlow Hill and Clinton Hill.

Towards Clinton Hill

Looking SW from the saddle twixt Finlow and Clinton Hills, Jodrell Bank in the distance

The footpaths, covered in compacted snow, were slippy – but the tarmac was absolutely treacherous. Ice-rinks had nothing on this. It was good to get off the tarmac and back onto footpaths which generally offered less slippy options.

Wrapped-up goat….well it IS winter

Chilly sheep

En-route to the edge

Alderley Edge is home to many of the rich & famous, footballers seem to find it a particularly attractive place to live. The high fences and walls that these houses hide behind make it all but impossible to get a decent photograph of them, so I borrowed this photo from The Daily Mail:
The photo was taken in summer. Obvious innit.
I trundled off northwest-ish to skirt the village (?) of Alderley Edge and then to the sandstone edges. The views were wintry to say the least:
About two hours after setting out I arrived back at the car for a very welcome coffee, it had been too damned cold to stop for a drink on the way round.

8.5km with not much up and downery, but it was good.