The Goyt Valley of the Grimshawes

About trip

The River Goyt begins its journey on the 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. Errwood Hall. In 1830, the Manchester industrialist Samuel Grimshawe chose this remote valley to build Errwood Hall, as a wedding present for his son. 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 estate had a staff of 20, and included a coal mine, a watermill, housing for the servants and a private school. The building of the Reservoirs. But even the Grimshawes and all their accumulated wealth couldn’t resist Stockport’s ever-growing need 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 30 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. Back to Grimshawes: 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. The Spanish Shrine. 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 Foxlow 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. Where to eat and drink: There’s usually an ice cream van in the car park at Errwood in summer. The Cat and Fiddle Inn on the Macclesfield–Buxton road, or you could try the Shady Oak at Fernilee (on the A5004 towards Whaley Bridge), which serves food daily. What to look out 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 Directions: The path, signposted to Stakeside and 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 then follow a path that zig-zags through the woodland of Shooter’s Clough before fording a stream. The path heads north (right), through rhododendron bushes before continuing across open grassland fields to a signposted junction of footpaths. 3 Turn right here on a track skirting the near side of a wooded knoll, then ignoring the first path through gateposts, take the second left ‘to ‘Errwood Hall’. The path continues past the ruins, before descending some steps to cross a stream via footbridge. 4 Climb some steps on the right to reach another footpath signpost. Turn left along the path signposted ‘The Shrine and 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 About 100yds (91m) on from the shrine the path reaches open moorland. Take the path forking right, which climbs to the top of Foxlow Edge. On reaching some old quarry workings near the top, the path is joined by a tumbledown dry-stone wall. Keep to the left-hand side of the wall, except for one short stretch where the path goes the other side to avoid some crosswalls. Ignore any paths off left or right and 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, follow the path left, downhill through the trees where it’s joined by another path. With banks of rhododendron bushes on your right, descend to the roadside at Shooter’s Clough Bridge just 100yds (91m) north of the car park. Extending the Walk. You can make a satisfying upland extension to this walk by ascending by the side of Shooter’s Clough from Point 2. Join the moorland ridge over Shining Tor and Cats Tor to join the road at Pym Chair. Turn right, down The Street and rejoin the main route near Point 5