Tuesday 13th August
We have loved Hanging Loose on the Caldon Canal but it’s time to move on. Today we are leaving the Caldon Canal, going through the Harecastle Tunnel and turning onto the Macclesfield Canal. The weather forecast is ok and we desperately need to go shopping.
We are back at the beginning of the Caldon Canal and stopped to fill up with water before joining the Trent & Mersey again.
We stopped off by Festival Park to go to Morrison’s and got lots of shopping. We then continued, hoping to moor at Westport Lake but there was no room. However, we did manage to moor just before the Harecastle Tunnel. It’s a 14 day mooring so we were very happy with that as we’re not in a rush to move on.
A Walk over the top of the Harecastle Tunnel
It’s Thursday 15th August and today we walked over the top of the tunnel. We struggled through some very overgrown paths on the way over but we did find a very nice pub called The Rifleman. We made it to the other side and luckily found an easier way back!
Cruising through the Harecastle Tunnel
It took us 44 minutes to get through the tunnel. It was very weird though, all we heard most of the way through was shouts of “ba****d” “you f***ing t**t” etc. Apart from that, we enjoyed it. We weren’t sure if it was someone on another boat – or – maybe the ghosts in the tunnel yelling at us!!!!! It’s really sad though when you think how many people died while tunnelling though here. And apparently there’s a headless woman haunting the tunnel. The lady was called Kit Crewbucket and she was murdered in the early 19th century by her travel companion.
Sometimes you can still hear her shrieks!
The Macclesfield Canal
Almost as soon as you leave the tunnel, you turn left onto the Macclesfield Canal and from the moment you turn on to it, it’s beautiful.
We moored at Bridge 93, which is a short walk to a pub called The Bleeding Wolf. It’s a lovely thatched pub and we had a lovely lunch there. I had a delicious chicken burger and Paul had gammon, egg and chips. The food was really good and the service was excellent.
We did another online shopping order with ASDA to be delivered tomorrow and then walked up to a pub called The Rising Sun.
This pub is by Bridge 87. We can highly recommend it. We had a couple of pints today and then returned for Sunday dinner. It was one of the best Sunday dinners I have ever had in a pub. In fact, it was so good that we came back on Monday night to eat. You get 20% off your bill on a Monday.
Monday 19th August
We have cleaned the boat as the roof was filthy! We also had to walk back to Red Bull Lock on the Trent and Mersey to get rid of our rubbish. There is a distinct lack of rubbish disposal facilities on the Macclesfield Canal. It wasn’t too far though, and we also popped to Tesco to get a few bits that didn’t come with our Asda delivery. The major highlight of today was that Tesco had Krispy Kreme doughnuts – so happy 😀
We moved the boat to Bridge 87 as we were on a 2 day mooring. Nice and close to The Rising Sun for our evening meal!
Little Moreton Hall
Little Moreton Hall is a 16th century moated black and white timber-framed Tudor Manor House with a labyrinth-like interior. It has a Long Gallery running along the top floor. The weight of this has caused the building to sag over the years. It is a National Trust property and it is really worth a visit. The only trouble for us is that it is not dog-friendly. We couldn’t even sit at the tables outside the cafe to have a cup of tea and wait with Tilly. No dogs past the moat! It was all good though, we just took it in turns. Paul managed to get a bit of the guided tour, which he said was really good.
It was a nice walk from our mooring, although we did have to walk through a field of rather scary cows!
We walked past a lovely privately-owned mansion called Ramsdell Hall on the way. This is a country house overlooking the Macclesfield Canal. It was built during the 18th century and is still in private ownership.
Also saw this on our walk yesterday – don’t fancy climbing up to that greenhouse!
Thanks for following our journey – have you been on the Macclesfield Canal or visited Little Moreton Hall. What did you think?