The Goyt Valley of the Grimshawes

A Manchester family's country retreat gave way to the inexorable demand for more water.

Distance 3.5 miles (5.7km)

Minimum time 2hrs 30min

Ascent/gradient 984ft (300m)

Level of difficulty Easy

Paths Good paths and tracks, a few stiles

Landscape Park type woodland and moor

Suggested map aqua3 OS Outdoor Leisure 24 White Peak

Start/finish SK 012748

Dog friendliness Dogs should be kept under close control

Parking Errwood car park

Public toilets 1 mile (1.6km) south at Goytsclough car park

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Directions
Background
Information

1 The path, signposted to Stakeside and the Cat and Fiddle, begins from the roadside just south of the car park. Climb with it through a copse of trees, go straight across a cart track, then climb the grassy spur separating Shooter's Clough and the Goyt Valley.

2 Go through a gate in the wall that runs along the spur and follow a grassy path that zig-zags through the pleasant woodland of Shooter's Clough before fording a stream. The path heads north (right), threading through rhododendron bushes before continuing across fields to a signposted junction of footpaths.

3 Turn right here on a good path skirting the near side of a wooded knoll, then fork left, along a path signposted 'To Errwood Hall'. The path continues past the ruins, and rounds the other side of the knoll before descending some steps to ford a stream.

4 Climb some steps up the far bank to reach another footpath signpost. Turn left along the path signposted to Pym Chair. This gradually swings north on hillslopes beneath Foxlow Edge. There's a short detour down and left to see the Spanish Shrine (visible from the main path).

5 Just before reaching the road, the path reaches more open moorland. Turn right along a path waymarked as '2a', which climbs to the top of Foxlow Edge. On reaching some old quarry workings near the top, the path is joined by a tumbledown drystone wall. Keep to the left of the wall, except for one short stretch where the path goes the other side to avoid some crosswalls. Ignore the waymark sending you down into the woods on the right. That route isn't often used and is too rough. Instead, stay with the ridge route. A wall (right) and a fence (left) soon confine the path as it descends to the woods.

6 At a fence corner, by the woodland's edge, the path becomes a faint groove on a grass slope. Follow it down for 100yds (91m) to where it meets a narrow dirt path. Turn left along this, back into the woodland, from where the path descends to the roadside at Shooter's Clough Bridge just 100yds (91m) north of the car park.

The River Goyt begins its journey on the wild heather moors of Axe Edge and Goyt Moss before flowing northwards to join the Mersey at Stockport. In times past its remote upper valley would have been filled with oakwoods. An old salters' and smugglers' road known as the Street, straddled it at Goyt Bridge before climbing over the Shining Tor ridge at Pym Chair.

In 1830, the rich Manchester industrialist, Samuel Grimshawe chose this remote valley to build Errwood Hall, as a wedding present for his son. Taking advantage of its relative isolation, the family lived here 'in the style of princes'. They imported 40,000 rhododendrons and azaleas for the ornate gardens, using their own ocean yacht, the Mariquita. In its heyday the state had a staff of 20, and included a coal mine, a water mill, housing for the servants and a private school.

But even the Grimshawes and all their accumulated wealth couldn't resist Stockport's ever-growing needs for water, and in 1938 the house was demolished for the newly-built Fernilee Reservoir. The dark battalions of spruce and larch, planted for a quick and plentiful supply of timber, eventually engulfed the oakwoods, and thirty years later a second reservoir, the Errwood, was built, higher up the valley. Little Goyt Bridge was dismantled and rebuilt upstream; and the valley was changed forever. For a while it became the destination of seemingly every Sunday car outing from Greater Manchester. The valley's single road was choked by vehicles and that remoteness and quiet seemed lost forever. Then a pioneering traffic management scheme was initiated by the National Park authority, including new car parks, a bus service and even road closures. The result was that this once peaceful beauty spot was restored to a state of relative tranquillity.

This walk takes you back to the 19th century, to the time of the Grimshawes, but first you aim to get an overview of the valley by climbing the grassy spur dividing the Goyt and Shooter's Clough. After dropping into Shooter's Clough the path wanders through unruly streamside woodland to green pastures and a wooded knoll. You briefly rejoin the crowds on the way to Errwood Hall. As you pass through mossy gateposts and into the grounds the order of the garden has been ruffled by nature, but the rhododendrons still bloom bright in the summer. The mossy foundations and floors still exist, as do some of the lower walls, arched windows and doors. You leave the hall and the crowds behind to round a wooded hill.

Uphill in a wild, partially wooded comb lies the Spanish Shrine, built by the Grimshawes in memory of their governess, Dolores de Bergrin. Inside the circular stone-built shrine there's a fine altar and colourful mosaic. If the weather is clement your spirits will be lifted by the return walk along the crest of Foxlowe Edge, for you can see most of today's walk laid beneath your feet as you survey the wild rolling moors, which are dappled with heather, bracken and pale moor grasses. Dinghies may be racing across the waters of Errwood Reservoir and even the intrusive sprucewoods seem to fit this exquisite jigsaw.

While you're there

Just off the route and to the west of Errwood Hall are the remains of the Grimshawe's burial ground, where you can see the graves of family members, some of their servants and Captain John Butler of their yacht the Mariquita.

Where to eat and drink

There's usually an ice cream van in the car park at Errwood in summer, but nothing on the route itself. The Cat and Fiddle Inn is on the Macclesfield-Buxton Road, a couple of miles drive away, but if you're driving you could also try the Setter Dog (pub) a few more miles on the same road to Macclesfield which serves excellent bar meals.

What to look for

On the west slopes of Burbage Edge you'll see the old trackbed of the Cromford and High Peak Railway, from the tunnel near the top down to the shores of Errwood Reservoir. Although this famous railway was one of the earliest in the country, the branch through the Goyt Valley was only in use between 1852 and 1877.