FROM the lay-by – see Details, below – turn right and walk up the road to Bolder Hall. Turn left over a stile just past Bolder Hall Farm, with its cattery and craft studio, then walk straight across the field to another stile and follow the insignificant, grassy path up the field ahead, then through reeds to a signpost.

Keep ahead again and turn left at a second signpost, before windswept hawthorn bushes. The views behind open up as you walk uphill.

You may need to veer slightly left to cross the ditch and tumbledown wall, before looking for the stile ahead and a path to the top (keep the parallel wall far to the right).

Turn left along the ridge, following the wall which may give you some protection on a parky day. Cut through a gap part-way along to avoid the crags and notice the wind-eroded boulders – some poised precariously.

After passing the remains of a sheepfold, climb over a step-ladder stile and continue with the wall on your right to a high stile – a heave-up for short legs. The views over to Kinder make this an exhilarating part of the route.

Drop down the next field between gorse bushes, veering left at the bottom, along the wall to a gap at its end into the next field. Then make for a signpost ahead, before the telegraph pole, and turn right.

Walk through a small coppice separated by two stiles – the second straddling a horizontal, stone gatepost. Keep in the same direction alongside a wall to two more stiles at a stable, then veer left down the field and climb over the stile onto Buxton Old Road.

Go over the stile opposite, into a field which may be home to a donkey. Ignore the stile to the right as you drop down the field to another stile in the far corner.

Keep the barbed-wire fence on your left as you continue down the valley side, then turn left over a stile when you reach a facing wall.

Stay in this direction, beside the wall, until you go over a stile into a spinney of firs, then over a cattle grid. Bear left and right here, to cross the stream, which may be muddy. Continue in this direction (uphill at first) on the track past Seven Springs Camp. After passing Kinder View look out for the obsolete Victorian post-box in the wall, replaced by a later one as you reach the end of Corks Lane.

Turn right past the Methodist chapel to The Ploughboy to stop for refreshment. if shut, continue to The Mousetrap, or any of the other eating places in Disley.

Continue downhill and, at the bottom, turn left up Ring o’Bells Lane, by the White Horse Hotel.

Pass several 19th century buildings and continue to the Friends Meeting House – once the Ring o’Bells inn.

Turn right under the sign depicting five bells, cross the stream and bear left, through the gate and up steps, passing the cemetery of Disley Church.

At its end turn left through the fence onto a grassy path.

Walk up the field, then turn left again, along Green Lane. Turn right immediately over a stile and cross the field diagonally towards Lyme Cage, which stands out on the hillside far ahead.

Climb over the stile behind the gap in the hawthorn hedge and turn right down the road.

On reaching Cockhead turn left at the signpost to Moorside, climb over a stile and walk up the field parallel with both fence and road.

Continue alongside the wall, with a view across Bollinhurst Reservoir. Negotiate a stile in a wall then continue in the same direction over marshy ground to a stile after the reservoir’s end.

Stay near the wall at first, then walk along a pretty path above a stream to a stile, with dog panel, in a fence.

Continue up the field, with a fence and gorse on your left, all the way to a signpost on your right. Exit through the gate here and turn left back up to Mudhurst Lane, where you turn left again to the lay-by and journey’s end.

Details

This walk starts in the lay-by along Mudhurst Lane (SJ 983 832). Route: Mudhurst Lane – Above Rocks Farm – Seven Springs Camp – Higher Disley – Ring o’Bells Lane – Cockhead – Bollinhurst Reservoir.

Distance: 5 miles. It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map.