The walk file: Lyme Park, Cheshire

Circular walk around Lyme Park, in the foothills of the Peak District National Park, begins with a splendid view of the stately home and its 1,400-acre deer park (as seen in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice) and ends with a breathtaking hilltop panorama of the region.

From the station, turn left along the A6 then left again onto a footpath down a wooded embankment, across the railway, to a quiet country lane leading west into the north end of the Lyme Park estate. Wander ahead, past the National Trust admissions booth, and over a ladder stile into the mature woodland corridor of the Ladybrook Valley Interest Trail. The pretty path crisscrosses over the meandering brook and the estate’s drystone perimeter wall as it makes its way south, passing the Cage, an imposing 18th-century sandstone tower, on the opposite side of the valley.

The trail emerges beside a former mill pond and the car park for Lyme Hall (Mr Darcy’s home in the BBC series), seat of the Legh family for nearly 600 years. Its cloistered courtyard and rose garden are well worth exploring.

Continue by picking up the Gritstone Trail heading uphill to the Knightslow Wood enclosure with its impressive Scotch pines. Beyond the trees, you suddenly enter the desolate uplands of Park Moor, grazed by herds of red deer.

At the moor’s summit, the trail leaves the estate by Bowstones Farm – named after nearby Saxon crosses. A two-mile out-and-back walk from here along the exposed ridge to Sponds Hill is like being on a path through the sky.

To return to Disley, follow the Gritstone Trail sign for East Lodge, winding down into the valley under the brow of Whaley Moor, before cutting through a cattle farm of hillocks and tumbledown stonewalls. A series of charming, unsurfaced country lanes then leads you back into town.

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The details

Red deer, a rose garden and Mr Darcy’s hall

Start/Finish
Disley train station (SJ973846)

Length of walk
8 miles

Walkers’ pitstop
Ram’s Head, Disley

Website
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lymepark/