Around Lyme Park

Recommended by

Our view

"Mr Darcy's footsteps at Pemberley Hall"

Walk directions

With the information booth behind you, cross the main car park then turn left up the main drive. Just before it bends over a cattle grid, fork off left along a broad track, towards Knightslow Wood, and follow this ahead through a gate. The trail climbs beside a long stand of pine trees. Pass through another gate into the wood and take the left fork.

On reaching a gate at the far side, take the track ahead, which snakes on to the moor towards communication masts sprouting from the skyline. Go over a ladder stile near the top then emerge at the top of a lane by Bowstone Gate Farm. (The Bow Stones themselves are set back in a small enclosure to the left of the lane just beyond the farm entrance.)

Turn left and follow the lane downhill to a junction opposite the entrance to High Peak School. Turn left immediately up a farm drive (Cock Knoll Farm) signed to East Lodge. Bear right through the farmyard, leaving through a gate by the end barn. Head straight down the left-hand side of the field.

By a small patch of woodland, fork left through a metal gate then across a stream. Bend right just beyond a set of ruins under some tall beech trees, then occasional waymarkers guide you across several rough pastures to emerge over a stile on to a track (the main Gritstone Trail route)

A shortcut leads left past East Lodge to Lyme House, but the main route turns right and down to the unsafe Bollinhurst Bridge. This is now bypassed by a wooden footbridge, then climb past a Millennium Woodland to a junction of paths.

Go left through a gate and head left (signed North Lodge) across a rough meadow. Descend gently beside a wood on the right, shortly crossing a stile. Continue on a narrow wooded spur between two streams, crossing the rightmost stream by a stone wall then over a stile. Continue beside the wall, soon at the edge of pastures overlooking Bollinhurst Reservoir. Cross over a track then continue ahead through fields just right of a farm. Go right over a stile into woodland and follow a wide track above a small ravine. Turn right at a junction and carry on along tarmac to a park entrance (North Lodge).

Turn left through the lodge gate and left again along the main park drive. Almost immediately, fork left then follow intermittent red arrow waymarkers on to the hill, along its spine past the grand hilltop building ‘The Cage’, then down towards Lyme House. Approaching the ornamental gates, a track on the right drops back to the car park.

View all directions

Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Generally firm, field tracks can be boggy if wet, several stiles

Landscape - Rolling parkland and fields, some moorland

Dog friendliness - Keep on lead in park and near livestock; under close control at all other times.

Parking - Lyme Park, off A6 (free to National Trust members, charge at entrance to non-members)

Toilets en route - By Timber Yard Café, near main car park

Walks in Cheshire Dog-friendly walks in Cheshire

About the walk

Lyme Park was originally created by Richard II, who, in 1398, granted land in the Royal Forest of Macclesfield. It became the ancestral home of the Legh family for the next five and a half centuries, and they were responsible for developing the original house into the sumptuous pile that you see...

Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

About the area

Nestled between the Welsh hills and Derbyshire Peaks, the Cheshire plains make an ideal location to take things slow and mess around in boats. Cheshire has more than 200 miles (302 km) of man-made waterways, more than any other county in England.