The Roaches and Lud's Church. 06-05-2018

The Roaches and Lud's Church

06-05-2018

A day of perfect weather, actually 2 days so far. An unusual occurrence, especially considering its Bank Holiday weekend. Something else that doesn't happen very often, Im wearing shorts in public. I rarely wear shorts these days due to them being brilliant white, and almost see-through. Anyway, we are on the M6 Southbound today, Ive already picked my Mum and Steve up and the car's packed and we are making very good time, the motorway is relatively quiet, especially for a Bank Holiday. We reach Junction 18 and turn off and head in the direction of Congleton, passing Jodrell Bank Space Telescope, today its pointing directly up, and looks like a huge cereal bowl. I love driving through Cheshire and into Staffordshire, I think its how all the fields look like a patchwork quilt, an its always green. Its a very pretty part of the country. Soon though we leave the main roads behind, and start climbing on the narrow, Postman Pat roads. The stunning weather has drawn plenty cyclists out, and overtaking them is arduous on the twisty lanes. We arrive at the car park for the Roaches path, and its packed. We can see people rock climbing and abseiling down the cliff edge, and more people walking up the path, but with nowhere to park we continue up the hill, looking for somewhere to pull over, and we turn a corner and find an Ice Cream van and plenty of places to stop. I park the car so tight to the kerb, I almost have to climb over the passenger seat to get out, but there is just enough room for me to squeeze out.

After a quick look at the map, I see that we are parked at the centre of the figure of 8 walk I had planned to do today, so after a short discussion on which way to go first, as we changed shoes and packed rucksacks, we headed off towards Lud's Church.

Its roughly half past 11, and its already over 22 degree's as we set off and seeing that there isn't many tree's to take shade under, Im glad I put suncream on before I left the house this morning. We walk down and past the ice cream van, through a narrow gate, and pick up the well trodden footpath heading towards Wincle.

After following a wall we came to a split in the footpath, one path heading downhill and the other heading up hill over the crest of the hill. We opt to head down and follow the lower path as it follows the base of the hill round to the point where the 2 paths meet again at the other side. Looking up to the top of the hill, you can see the Gritstone rock protruding out of the grass. 

The small wooded area in the last photo would make a fantastic wild camp site, so I noted that for future reference. Apparently during the second world war, 5 Wallabies escaped from a nearby Zoo, and survived quite well, numbering over 50 at one point. Even more amazing, there are still wild Wallabies at the Roaches and even as far north as Kinder Scout, with one being photographed late last year.

We reach the point at the far end of the hill, where the 2 paths meet again, and we take a right turn up the Gritstone path over the now lower crest of the hill towards Back Forrest and Lud's Church. The sun is now in our faces, and it feels a lot warmer, especially as the hill is now sheltering us from the breeze, but its not long before we are entering the forrest, and the shade provided by the trees. We come across a rocky outcrop, but there is family eating their lunch, and their children are playing, running in and out of the trees and up and down the stone formation, so we carry on along the path.

We arrive at Lud's Church, and its impressive. Caused by a landslip, a crack in the bedrock has opened up a long and deep chasm in the Gritstone. Its huge, over 100m long, and 18 meters deep, only the top third of the slope hasn't slipped down towards the River Dane. As you walk in, the temperature drops instantly, and after walking in the sun for an hour, its a welcome surprise. 

My pictures don't do it any justice what so ever, its a fantastic place, and I can understand why it was used as a secret place of worship during the 15th century, when the Christians were being persecuted for their belief's.

Trying to get any pictures without anybody standing in the shot proved to be difficult, as there was a lot of people walking through both ways, but I got what I wanted and headed out of the opposite end, back into Back Forrest. After following the path along the elevated platforms, we come to a sign post for the ridge, so we turn right and head up the hill to the top. Once at the top, we turn right again and follow the path up to the rocky outcrop we had seen from the lower path earlier in the day. 

After looking at the wind carved stone, we decided to stop and have lunch, so we found a nice spot out of the breeze and had rest and some sandwiches. One thing that struck me was just how quiet it was, besides the occasional bird, it was silent, no traffic noise, no planes, just silence, and with the fantastic view, Ive definitely had dinner in worse places.

After half an hour or so, we set off back the way we came, and followed the top of the hill back to the car, passing a lot more people than we had earlier, and it was nice to see quite a few younger people in pairs and couples getting out and about in the sunshine. It isn't long before we pass the Ice Cream van and we are back at the car, the flask that I had forgotten to take with me, is out and my mum pours herself a brew, I mention that I would like to go up and see the top of the Roaches, and the stone boulders on top, but my mum is now too tired, so its just me and Steve to make the small ascent to the highest point of the hill. It doesn't take long, maybe 15 minutes and we see the Trig Point, we make it to the top.

The highest point is only 505 meters high, but the views are excellent, well they would be if it hadn't been so hazy, you can still see for miles though. On a clear day you can see Snowdon in Wales and Winter Hill in Lancashire, but not today. The Sandstone rocks that stand on the top are amazing, deposits from an ancient riverbed, they are gradually being carved out by weather erosion, but are formed into brilliant shapes. Unfortunately, the battery on my phone died, as did Steves feet, so we made our way back down without reaching the far side of the ridge and Doxey Pool, where the mermaid is supposed to live. Back at the car, Mum is catching flies, and is well away on the back seat, so me and Steve change our shoes and repack the car and make our way home, concluding a very enjoyable day.