Hi, can anyone suggest a gentle off-road route, suitable for someone recovering from shoulder surgery?

The bridleway along the Goyt (past Roman Lakes) from Marple Bridge to Strines, and back along the canal, would be good but rather short. Any suggestions for extending this route, please?

The bridleways down off Mellor Moor (The Banks and Brook Bottom) are definitely too rocky. What’s Werneth Low like? Thanks for any help!

canal to New Mills, Sett Valley trail nearly to Hayfield, turn R onto Ollersett Moor, Peep O’Day, cross road to the Roych BW, Coldwell Clough (might be a walk if nervous), Oakenclough, Kinderlow End, Kinder Res, White Brow, Snake Path or Chunal back to Hayfield, back the way you came ?

Thanks for that, Simon – it looks good! Maybe something shorter this weekend, so we’ll save yours until next month. Cheers!

if you live near Lyme Park / Disley, i would recommend: Lyme park, follow the road to the main house and take the right hand road up the hill, follow the track down to the West gate (marked as West gate on the OS map), turn right on the country road, follow for 400 metres to the Middlewood Way, turn left towards Macclesfield follow for about 7 miles and if you are still feeling energetic, go for a trip around macclesfield Forest then back on the same route. A nice gentle route, but don’t park your car at Lyme park as they will charge you £7.00 to use the carpark!

Esme- when you come out at Strines station ( from the Roman lakes), turn down the road ( cobbles) and past the mill pond. Turn left onto Strines road, about 4 minutes on the right ( directly opposite 2x 3 story cottages) is a bridle path. This takes you past the drum and paper factories. If you get into Hague bar turn back.
At the end turn left up the lane ( Waterside) taking the first right. This road takes you up hill, then when you get onto the canal ( turning right) follow the canal until you go over a lane, take the steps ( on the right) down to the lane, this track brings you back out opposite Strines Station. Go staight across, back the way you came earlier, cycle past the station.
Take the left turning, this is a steepish lane.
At the top turn left along a sandy track ( good views towards Manchester).
Past some houses, there will a sign ( bottom of the Banks) for bridle way, turn left ( steep downhill on narrow lane).
Turn right at the bottom, bringing you out at a house called ‘Shelan’.
After this house and at the side of the golf course is a long descent, it’s fairly flat so shouldn’t be too bumpy.
Turn right at the bottom, this will take you back to the Roman Lakes where you started.

Werneth Low is good, but the last descent back to the Andrews Arms is rocky.

Variation on SFB’s route: out to New Mills via the canal, Sett Valley Trail to Birch Vale then do something over/around Chinley Churn and back via Sett Valley again.
I live in New Mills, drop me a line if you want and I’ll send over some better details of the tracks round here (not all waymarked… 😉 )

Many thanks, everyone! These suggestions will keep us going for quite a while, definitely until full recovery

Barnes’ route has some stuff that is equally as rocky as the descents from mellor cross, so might not be suitable. Could do a loop around etherow? There are non-rocky routes up and down Werneth low also.

Barnes’ route has some stuff that is equally as rocky as the descents from mellor cross

I did point out Coldwell Clough might be a walk, but forgot to mention that the section from Middle Moor to Chunal is also quite rocky & rutted in places. It seemed to me that the overall fun factor justified a bit of pushing if you’re being careful.

I’m not “too posh to push”

But when I’ve pushed up a hill, it’s a bit demoralising if I have to push down as well!

Thanks for all the suggestions. The paper mill section suggested by Bunnyhop (also Spanna on another site) was lovely

In fact, I dropped Other Half and Best Buddy near the top of Mellor Moor, so they could ride down without the effort of going up first. My menfolk are totally pampered!

The refreshment stand (if it had indoor seating I’d call it a cafe) at Roman Lakes sells a little book with some good routes in it. I’d suggest plotting them onto an OS map before you use it though as the instuctions are a little interprative.