The "3 Peaks"

If you live in the UK you may have heard of the National Three Peaks Challenge, which is to climb the highest peak in England, the highest in Wales and the highest in Scotland in 24 hours.
 
If you live in Yorkshire then the Three Peaks Challenge will mean something else – to climb the three highest peaks in Yorkshire in 24 hours.
 
But as of today there is a new “The Three Peaks” challenge – to climb to the three highest points in Cheshire in under 6 hours ;-)
 
I am sure someone has done this walk before me, but I have never seen it described anywhere.  I planned the walk some time ago, but 45% of the route is paths I have not been on before, and the contour lines on the OS map made it look rather demanding, so I had to wait for a nice today.



I was delayed getting to the starting point due a road closure in Macclesfield, but I started walking at 09:30 – from Trentabank to Shutlingsloe (the 3rd highest point in Cheshire), then down to Wildboarclough and then back up to Whetstone Ridge (the 2nd highest point in Cheshire) and then across the moors to Shining Tor (the highest point in Cheshire).
 
I don’t like walks where you have to retrace your steps and that was part of my challenge for today’s walk.  From Shining Tor I could have retraced my steps to Whetstone Ridge but instead I headed off (in completely the wrong direction) to Lamaload Reservoir, then worked my way back to Trentabank via Forest Chapel.
 
Did I do it in 6 hours – not this time.  It took 6.5 hours, although if I’d started from further up the valley, had lunch whilst walking, or not bothered with a several mile detour via Lamaload Reservoir I would have done.  The walk is like the Penrose Stairs – you always seem to be climbing and hardly ever coming down!  Some of the new paths (new to me that is) are tough going too, including some marshy bits where if there is a path then it is several feet under the surface.  So just 2 mph today – the walk was 13 miles.
 
The main blip is Shutlingsloe, which actually looks like a hill.  The first extra is Whetstone Ridge where the highest point is some peat which is slightly protruding, and the second extra is Shining Tor which actually more interesting (from a hiking point of view) than it looks.