Errwood Hall and Shining Tor Plane Wreck | 7 Miles

June 13, 2024 CIRCULAR WALKS, MEDIUM WALKS 4-9 MILES, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS WITH KIDS

This walk explores some of the history of the Goyt Valley, starting with the eerie ruins of Errwood Hall before heading up to Shining Tor, the highest point in Cheshire to discover the Airspeed Oxford wreck site. The route then visits Cats Tor and Foxlow Edge, as well as the tucked-away St Joseph’s shrine. This is a 7 mile walk.

Errwood Hall Ruins

Errwood Hall, a magnificent country house built in 1843, was the home of the Grimshawe family. It survived for less than 100 years, being demolished in 1934 when the construction of the Fernilee Reservoirs was ongoing. This once grand Victorian mansion is now just a sad pile of stones, however there are hints of its former grandeur in the window reveals and the once ornate crest which stood over the door. There are some photos on Goyt-Valley.org which show the house in better days, with an ornate archway leading up to the family cemetery on the hillside. The cemetery and vault are still there and well worth a visit.

Shining Tor Plane Wreck

The Airspeed Oxford Mk1 LX745 crashed on 12 March 1944. The three crew members survived the crash but sadly perished from exposure and were found huddled against the wreckage. Nearby there are also the sites of some other plane crashes:

Boulton-Paul Defiant T3921 (SJ 99906 73401)
North American Harvard MK 2B FT442 (SJ 99753 73746)

Noorduyn NOrseman UC-64A, 43-35439 (SJ 99830 73579)

We visited these sites on this walk as they are just off the main path up to Shining Tor but we couldn’t see any debris at any of these sites, so you might not want to bother! The GPX file doesn’t have these sites included but the Komoot map is the route we walked, so does. You can download a GPX file from Komoot, or use the grid references given to find the sites.

Our walk started from the free Errwood Hall car park (we have done a very similar route starting from the car park at Pym Chair if you prefer). We followed the Errwood Hall trail marker sign up through the meadow and into the woods, then followed a trail which leads to a set of steps. After climbing the steps we were in the grounds of Errwood Hall.

We had an explore and then set off up to the west to the hillside cemetery where the Grimshawe family vault is.

From here we walked through the woods around the back of the cemetery, passing an avenue of yew trees leading to the vault, and down into the fields to the ruins of Castedge Farmhouse, which was destroyed around the same time as Errwood Hall. We came to a junction and carried on straight up Shooters Clough through the woods. The path has a couple of switchbacks and climbs up to a gate leading into the Open Access Land.

Heading south along the wall, the path climbs steadily to a T-junction and we turned right at a holly bush to join the main path up to Shining Tor. Here our original route included visiting the crash sites of the other 3 planes, however we could find no remains at any of them. We should have just carried on up the main path rather than yomping about in the heather for no reason!!

What looks to be a bare patch of earth on a moorland

The wreck site of the Noorduyn Norseman.

The trig point at Shining Tor is just through a little wooden gate, and there are stunning views over to Shutlingsloe and Manchester from here. Shining Tor is the highest point in Cheshire at 559m above sea level.

We rejoined the paved path that runs roughly north along to Cats Tor, and after around 1km we left the path in search of the Shining Tor plane wreck, the Airspeed Oxford.

After exploring the wreck and removing some rubbish which some idiot had stuffed in the heather, we headed off to Cats Tor which is an Ethel summit but isn’t marked by anything. The path runs along to join the road at Pym Chair, so we followed the road south-east for around half a mile until we reached a parking lay-by and a wooden gate which leads onto Foxlow Edge.

Instead of immediately climbing up Foxlow Edge we took a little detour down the hillside to visit St Joseph’s Shrine, built for Dolores, the governess who worked at Errwood Hall. It’s a lovely little building.

We retraced our steps and then headed up the hill to the summit of Foxlow Edge (again, another Ethel whose summit isn’t marked). The route then heads steeply down through the woods to rejoin the road leading to the car park, passing over Shooters Clough Bridge along the way.