With its slopes bracken-coloured in autumn, brilliant white in winter, or a distant heat-hazy blue in summer, the characteristic scarp shape of the Cloud is the best known skyline in Cheshire. And what a vantage point it is! Standing on the summit at little over a thousand feet, the panorama is finer than from many a hill twice its height. On the far horizon to the north you can pick out Winter Hill, to the south, some 40 miles away, lies the Wrekin, while westwards across the Cheshire Plain are the Welsh hills. But the view that holds the attention is eastwards, where beyond the sentinel tower on Croker Hill rises the flat topped ridge of Shutlingsloe, the rocky rib of the Roaches reveals its castellated outline, while in the distance are the high moors of the Peak District.
LOCATION: Two miles east of Congleton
START: Timbersbrook Picnic Area
Grid ref: SJ895627 Postcode: CW123QA
DISTANCE: 3.5 miles
GRADE: Moderate
TIME: 2 hours
MAP: Explorer - Wilmslow, Macclesfield & Congleton Landranger 118
REFRESHMENTS: Pack a flask
EN ROUTE: Gritstone Trail, Gosberryhole Lane, Acorn Lane
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News