"The violent Mountain Torrents" will be tamed, said Thomas Telford, when planning Bosley Reservoir to supply the Macclesfield Canal with water. And conditions were still wild when the canal opened in November 1831, for ladies were not invited "on account of the advanced period of the season and a very natural anxiety for the preservation of their health". But with spring upon us, great crested grebes giving courtship displays, chaffinches, tits, robins and blackbirds in full song and the woods full of bluebells, there was no "cold and damp atmosphere" it was so sunny we were too hot.
LOCATION: Five miles south of Macclesfield
START: Off A523. Turn left after the Queens Arms, down Bennets Lane. Roadside parking just before the dam. Grid ref: SJ925651 Postcode: SK110NY
DISTANCE: Three miles
GRADE: Easy
TIME: 2 hours
MAP: Explorer - Wilmslow & Macclesfield Landranger 118
REFRESHMENTS: Harrington Arms
EN ROUTE: St Mary the Virgin
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News