Following in the Stately Steps of Mr Darcy

A circuit of the attractive grounds of Lyme Park, one of the Peak's finest country houses.

Distance 5.5 miles (8.8km)

Minimum time 3hrs 30min

Ascent/gradient 950ft (290m)

Level of difficulty Easy

Paths Generally firm, field tracks can be slippery if wet, 12 stiles

Landscape Rolling parkland and fields, some moorland

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer OL1 Dark Peak

Start/finish SJ 964823

Dog friendliness On lead in deer sanctuary; several awkwardly high stiles

Parking Lyme Park, off A6 (free to National Trust members)

Public toilets By Old Workshop Tea Room, near main car park

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Directions
Background
Information

1 With the lake on your right and the house on your left leave the car park by the drive and, as it begins to bend away to the right, turn left for a wide track through a gate signposted 'Gritstone Trail'. Follow this through Knightslow Wood, negotiating several ladder stiles, until you emerge on moorland.

2 Go straight ahead/left on the main track as it climbs the moorland, aiming for the small TV masts on the skyline. At the top cross another stile and a short field to emerge at the end of a surfaced lane by the Bow Stones.

3 Turn left and follow the lane downhill until you reach its junction with another road, opposite the driveway to a hotel. Turn left and walk up the drive of Cock Knoll Farm. When you get to the buildings head right, across the farmyard, as indicated by footpath signs. At the far side go through a gate and down the left-hand side of a field.

4 As you draw level with a small thicket in the shallow valley on the left, go over a stile and through the trees. Out on the other side head right, across the bottom of a field. Clear waymark posts now point you through several rough fields to a walled lane on the far side.

5 Once you are on the lane turn right and continue over Bollinhurst Bridge. (If you turn left you can take a short cut back to the house from here via East Lodge.) Beyond Macclesfield Borough's newly planted Millennium Wood you reach a junction of tracks. Go through the gate on the left and take a grassy track, half left, signposted to North Lodge.

6 Descend the right-hand side of a rough field to the woodlands at the bottom. The path now goes over several stiles as it skirts round Bollinhurst Reservoir - keep close to the wall on your left. A newly laid, gated gravel path takes you around the side of Cockhead Farm, and then continues across another field and down a shaded grassy lane. At the end of the lane turn right, on to a surfaced drive, to reach North Lodge.

7 Go through the pedestrian gate at the lodge, then turn left and walk along the main drive for about 250yds (229m). Take the obvious footpath up the hillside on your left, between a short avenue of trees, to reach the top of the open, grassy ridge. Head for the unmistakable hilltop folly known as The Cage, then continue straight on to return to the house and car park.

It's the classic English stately home: a medieval manor house that was gradually transformed into a large and elegant Palladian mansion, and which is today full of antique furniture and tapestries, carvings and clocks. Outside, there are formal gardens (including an Edwardian Rose Garden and an Orangery), plus 1,400 acres (567ha) of open moorland and parkland that is home to herds of red and fallow deer. Such is the sheer magnetism of the place that it was chosen as one of the settings for BBC Television's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in 1994, and the sight of a semi-naked Mr Darcy (played by Colin Firth) striding across the grounds apparently remains indelibly printed on many minds.

Lyme Park was originally created by Richard II who, in 1398, granted land in the Royal Forest of Macclesfield. It became the ancestral home of the Legh family for the next five and a half centuries, and they were responsible for developing the original house into today's sumptuous pile. In 1946 the house and park were donated to the National Trust who now receive financial support from Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council to manage the estate. The grounds are open all year and the lovely rolling parkland and moorland tracks with their fabulous views over Cheshire and the Dark Peak are well worth exploring. Near Pursefield Wood is the 300-year-old Paddock Cottage, which was built partly to enhance the radiating views visitors enjoyed to and from the main house. A few of these so-called vista lines, all carefully plotted so that the house can be admired from surrounding locations, are still visible today, including one impressive corridor through the trees of Knightslow Wood to the south of the house. Other eye-catching buildings include the various lodges that dot the park's perimeter, including Parkgate Lodge. This was once known as the Dower House and was where the widowed mothers of the Lords of the Manor would be expected to reside.

Although the actual house itself is often hidden by the undulating moorland, and several dense patches of woodland, this circular walk offers ever-changing views of Lyme Park. From tree-lined avenues and open meadows to the tiny reservoirs of the Bollinhurst Valley. The rough moors to the south and east offer the best vantage points - it is said you can see seven counties from the top of Sponds Hill - but don't forget to examine things closer to hand. Near Bowstonegate is a small enclosure containing the Bow Stones, thought to be the middle sections of late-Saxon crosses which may have been ancient boundary markers. The sole surviving cross head is now to be found in the courtyard at Lyme Park.

Where to eat and drink

The Ale Cellar Restaurant inside the house serves a range of 'traditional meals and historic menus' and is licensed, while the Old Workshop tea room, located near the car park by the large millpond and open daily in season, operates on a self-service basis and has a decent range of snacks and light refreshments. There's also an ice cream kiosk near the main car park, which is open seasonally.

What to look for

The curious hilltop folly known as The Cage is one of Lyme Park's most visible landmarks. An elegant three-floored building, it was built around 1735 as a banqueting house, but since then has been variously used as an observation tower for watching the stag hunt, as a lodging for the park's gamekeepers, and even as a temporary prison for poachers. After falling derelict it has recently undergone restoration and is occasionally open to visitors.

While you're there

It would be a shame not to visit the house itself, with its splendid gardens. Otherwise the nearby Macclesfield Canal provides a pleasant corridor for recreation, and not just for water-borne users. It forms part of the Cheshire Ring Canal Walk, a 97-mile (156km) circular route around Greater Manchester incorporating the tow paths of six historic canals, including the Peak Forest and the Trent & Mersey. The stretch past Lyme Park, between Macclesfield and Marple, is particularly rural and peaceful.