309 Saturday 14th March 2026 Broadbottom to Marple and Etherow Country Park

 With  a  big  improvement in the weather, I  decided  to  continue  the  station to station walk onwards  from  Broadbottom but  because  we  needed  to  visit  a  country  park  for  our  YouTube  schedule, I  decided  to  divert  from  the  most  obvious  route to  take in  Etherow Country Park and  end the walk at  Marple  rather  than  Strines.

We  caught  the  Hadfield  train from  Piccadilly.


We  alighted at  Broadbottom noting some interesting displays in the station building that hadn't been accessible on our previous visit. The route became interesting and scenic almost straight away as we passed the  Hodge Lane Dye Vats.

We  soon  made  the  acquaintance of the river Etherow.


We  admired  seventeenth-century  Botham's Hall.



 After  that there was a  steep climb through the woods. The view from the top was terrific.


After another sharp little climb, we hit a ridge from which the views were even better.


We  passed some  horses on the way down to Compstall.



We  then filmed our  video in Etherow Country Park. The results can be seen here



After  finishing at  Etherow Country Park,  we  headed for  Marple station. I  then made the  cardinal error of not  checking a  footpath off on the  map and  we ended up  well wide of  our  destination. It  took me  a  while to realise we were wrong after expecting the station to be round every corner.

Eventually the aqueduct for the Peak Forest Canal allowed us to orientate ourselves.



 The  canal provided a long  but  failsafe plod to  the  station.


We  got there just in time for  the  train and made our way home.



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