Kerridge Loop

Grade: Moderate
Distance: 5.7km/ 3.5 miles
Time: 2 hours
Map: OS Explorer 268
Terrain: Field paths, tracks and stony paths. Muddy patches in winter. Some steep gradients.
Barriers: Steep slopes
Toilets: Adlington Road Car Park, Bollington
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Bollington is known for its cotton mills and is an attractive small town with excellent facilities, situated in beautiful countryside.

The famous monument called White Nancy sits at the north end of Kerridge Ridge, high above Bollington. Built by the Gaskell family in 1820 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo, it is a unique feature in the landscape.

The ridge of Kerridge is still quarried for the good quality millstone and from the footpath numerous quarries can be seen on the Cheshire side of the hill.

The Millstone Grit is known to contain fossils of plants from the Carboniferous times about 350 million years ago. The plant remains are of tree ferns and Calamites, a large tree and a distant ancestor of today,s horsetail plants.

Ingersley Vale is the valley behind Kerridge which links Rainow and Bollington along the River Dean. The valley is a peaceful, pretty area with a number of flagged footpaths linking the villages and farms across fields.

There are the remains of mills in the valley, notable is Cow Lane Mill as well as the large number of mills in Bollington itself. Hough Hole house (not open to the public) features an "allegorical garden" based on the Pilgrim's Progress.