View to Welsh Hills, Lyme

Start / Finish

Mill Pond

Note: Free parking is for National Trust members only.

This route takes visitors from the car park and Timber Yard coffee shop area across Drinkwater Meadow, before picking up a stony path to Paddock Cottage to admire the views. The route then descends steeply through some woodland and circles a large mound before descending through a little woodland copse to the start.

There a route has some steep inclines and descents and the paths are very uneven in places. There are three gates and a stile along the way.

This route is not suitable for push chairs or wheelchair users.

• START from the Run at Lyme Park information board, turn left along the footpath by the mill pond and cross the bridge.
• Turn left following the footpath around the back of the mill pond.
• At the end of the path turn right on to the tarmac road.
• Just before the cattle grid take the left hand fork to the large wooden gate.
• Go through the gate and follow the track for about 20 metres before taking the large grassy path on the right.
• Follow the path for about 300 metres until you cross a small bridge over a stream. Turn left at the stream, keeping the stream on your left and follow to the corner of the field.
• Cross the stone step stile and turn sharp right following the path that is next to the wall (CAUTION – there is a steep drop to the left of this path).
• At the end of the path go through the wooden gate and follow the track up the hill to Paddock Cottage (from here on a clear day you can see across to the Cheshire plain to Jodrell Bank, Alderley Edge and in the very distance, the Welsh Hills.
• Turn right and follow the wide, flat track running between the trees. After a few hundred metres follow the track to the left where it descends steeply and leads to some uneven steps that go down to a gate to a small car park.
• Go across the car park and then take the grassy path keeping the Knott (the large mound) on your right. Follow the track until you reach a gravel path.
• At the gravel path turn right and follow this until it joins the beginning of a tarmac road. Cross the road and follow the grass path diagonally to a stile between the dry stone wall on your left and a mound (Turtle Brew) on your right. Follow the left fork of the path down to the Timber Yard and back to the FINISH.