Author Topic: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?  (Read 2106 times)

blistaz

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Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« on: 12:30:06, 22/07/19 »
Hello, is there a path along the North side of the reservoirs at Woodhead/Torside?
I'm going to walk from Hadfield to the tunnels along the Longdendale trail, rather than turn round and retrace steps I fancy doing a loop.
It looks like there's a path from the tunnels to Woodhead Bridge. Google street view suggests I can cross the bridge as a pedestrian. Once on the West side can I walk to the camp site at Crowden?
 I'm fine from there.
I'm novice enough to need pretty well defined paths!
Thank you :)

sussamb

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #1 on: 13:45:31, 22/07/19 »
Yes, you can do that easily enough, either initially along the road or by cutting onto a number of tracks in the area depending on your preference  O0
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blistaz

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #2 on: 14:01:31, 22/07/19 »
Thank you @sussamb :)

Tracks are my preference, especially as the A628 looks like it could be quite 'exciting' to walk along!

It looks like there's a path heading NNW from the A6024 near the A628 junction so I'll head up there and see if I can find a Westward path from that.

Cheers!



sussamb

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #3 on: 14:18:33, 22/07/19 »
Yes there's a track close to there that hugs the north side of the road all the way to Crowden O0
« Last Edit: 14:21:48, 22/07/19 by sussamb »
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blistaz

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #4 on: 14:21:08, 22/07/19 »
Perfect :) Thank you for that @sussamb much appreciated :)

Steve18566

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #5 on: 09:28:23, 24/07/19 »
I've been looking at doing a circular of the 5 reservoirs for some time (probably 11/12 miles).


The southern side is straightforward, but struggling to determine if there are paths/tracks on the northern side all the way from Woodhead Bridge to Bottoms Reservoir.


Obviously I don't want to walk on the A628 as the OP.


sussamb can you help?


Tahnks


Steve

sussamb

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #6 on: 12:23:41, 24/07/19 »
Yes, there is a track all the way along the north sides of the reservoirs.  If you use a GPS or smartphone app I can send you a gpx file.
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Steve18566

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #7 on: 13:05:38, 24/07/19 »
Thanks sussamb


Would it be possible to post a screenshot of the route


Steve

sussamb

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #8 on: 15:38:05, 24/07/19 »
I could but that would then be my choice of route and there are a few options.  I'll see if I can later post a screenshot of the map with the paths marked  O0
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sussamb

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #9 on: 16:47:59, 24/07/19 »
Here you go, click on them for full size view






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blistaz

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #10 on: 09:34:38, 25/07/19 »
That's really helpful @sussamb- thank you  :)

@Steve18566 - I'm hoping to do this walk in a couple of weeks so I'll post which paths I follow and how I get on.

Steve18566

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #11 on: 14:02:12, 25/07/19 »
That's brilliant sussamb - thankyou


Thank you too in advance blistaz

blistaz

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #12 on: 10:39:50, 12/08/19 »
I've not forgotten about this @Steve18566 - if it would just stop thundering at the weekends I'll get my boots on :)

Steve18566

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #13 on: 06:59:24, 14/08/19 »
blistaz


It's every weekend at the moment isn't it!!

blistaz

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Re: Woodhead tunnels to Crowden - north route?
« Reply #14 on: 15:56:47, 21/08/19 »
Well, finally got out at the weekend to do this, looping anti clockwise from Hadfield, and it was mostly very pleasant indeed :)
Rather than cross Woodhead Bridge along the A628 I went up the short permissive path that runs North and crosses just below the weir. The footpath isn't narrow by any means but has unfenced waterways on both sides so be careful if poor visibility or if you have kids with you. The wooden slats on the bridges are super slippy too!
Over the A6024 and there's an obvious path that broadly follows the roads round eventually getting to St James church where Torside and Woodhead meet. I'm assuming this is the one shown on the OS maps but I was too focused on my footing to check gps. This is where the mostly comes into play. The path - certainly around the foot of Ancote Hill - was pretty gloopy and although obvious involved wading through very long grass and ferns. So properly waterproof boots and gaiters, or wait until 3 weeks without rain, or do as I did and spend the next hour with walking shoes full of water.
If I do the walk again I may look for other paths further up the hill though I have a feeling that the ground is currently full of water everywhere at the moment.

Once you're at St James there's an easy path that runs alongside the A628 thorugh to Crowden which is completely fern free, though the ground is a little uneven so take care. If you're tempted to go via the quarry just be aware that when i did that on a separate walk last week there was no sign whatsoever of the PROW which supposedly runs right through the quarry down to Crowden so I ended up having to retrace my steps.
From Crowden there are loads of easy options for getting to Hadfield.
Hope that helps, overall I'd be happy to walk it again if I can figure out how to avoid the gloopy bit.

 

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