Mobberley, Manchester Airport and the Bollin Valley

Jim Grindle

You need to log in as a member of Walkingworld to access the details for this walk and have an active subscription. Please join, or log in above if you are already a member.

We thought that we'd try something completely different for this walk - include a short stretch of the bottom end of Runway 2 at Manchester Airport. It won't be to everybody's taste, but we quite enjoyed watching the aircraft take off and there was some very pleasant countryside before we reached the airfield and an extremely attractive walk along part of the Bollin Valley afterwards. If you live anywhere near, then it is worth giving it a chance; if you are against airports on principle then the walk may confirm your views! A number of footpaths were deleted when the runway was built and we found that there were several new ones to connect up the system again. We changed our route to make use of a couple of these. I checked later on the latest map but these new paths still do not appear.

England - North England - Cheshire - Countryside

Features

Birds, Flowers, Great Views, Mostly Flat, Pub, Public Transport, River, Wildlife, Woodland

9/9/2017 - Richard Barraclough

I had some problems with route finding. After point 5, there are now some fences with gates. No sign of vegetation or ponds. I also missed point 7. I carried on in the same general direction and found myself on an approach road to an emergency runway exit and next to landing lights. I turned left towards the emergency exit and turned left again at the exit gates. I followed the runway perimeter path to arrive on Wood Lane after point 10. At point 13 there was no waymarker for the Bollin Valley Way. The route is to follow the hedge on your left and avoid the downhill path to your right when you get to the runway landing lights. No problem with water and mud in the fields after point 32. The highlight of the walk was seeing a kingfisher when I crossed the bridge between point 19 and 20. The worst aspect of the walk for me, was the extensive patches of Himalyan Balsam in the woods next to the River Bollin.

1/25/2015 - Linda Carr

Rich & Lin Carr January 25th 2015. We had problems with point 32 as well, we also felt the landowner was trying to deter walkers. We just about managed to get through, but making our way to Point 33 was met with a keep out sign, we ignored this and followed the route with no problems. We enjoyed the walk apart from the mentioned problem.

1/30/2012 - Yvonne Scully

We did this walk on 29 January 2012 and would comment that the path at Point 32 (through the second field) was virtually impassable. It is knee deep in mud (and in some places deep water) and bordered on one side by a double barbed wire fence and on the other by a thorny hedge, so there is nothing to hold on to to help you keep your balance. We got the distinct impression that the landowner had purposely made it very difficult to access and is trying to discourage walkers from using the path.