Ashmos one

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This was definitely a walk of two halves. The first, from the station area at Ashton, used green spaces in the middle of large housing estates - better than walking all along roads but not very scenic and quite a lot of discarded rubbish. The second half - starting through the Knott Hill nature reserve was lovely - lots of trees and pretty water channels. It then opened out to by a golf course and turned into a countryside walk beneath the hilltop monument of Hartshead Pike. A small diversion to the The Hartshead Inn was well worth it - the food was excellent - before descending quite steeply into Mossley.

Leaving Ashton, we were soon walking through a park, past a school, and then through a string of open green spaces, used by dog walkers. The footpath across the grass was well worn and wet and muddy in places, although this was towards the end of a wet winter. There were kissing gates, and some litter and rubbish, but it was nicer than pavement pacing, and we had our first glimpse of the Hartshead Pike tower.
A short way along the B6194 we turned off opposite a Hindu Temple, a Slow Ways first for me. After passing some new housing along a gravel path, we reached some woods, then a set of shallow steps took us up to the good path that runs around Knotts Hill Nature Reserve and reservoir. This was really very nice, but it was difficult to find the route out onto the golf course. I’ll attach a map of what we walked, as the OS footpaths don’t match what’s visible on the ground. I think possibly a bridge over the stream has disappeared. You need to keep to the south east of the stream. GPS really helped here!
Eventually, we reached the golf course and then climbed up through some wet and muddy fields. We branched off slightly to Grid Ref SD 96346 01837 into the pub car park, and enjoyed a nice pub lunch!
Back on the field path we had good views of Hartshead Pike, and back to the centre of Manchester. The exit from the field was an unusual stile and sunken walled path.
The views down into Mossley were lovely, but the steep path down was a bit muddy and slippy, and could be a bit overgrown in summer, but it looked well used.
This route definitely had some really good points and I could imagine on a sunny summer’s day it would be gorgeous. Navigation was a bit of a challenge though!.

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