Airport - Heald Green run (aka Steve's new Thursday run):-
Distance - 9 miles/15 km
Climb - 300 ft/80 m
Terrain - medium - road, flat trail, short stretches of rough ground
Short-cuts - From the airport runway return via Styal and Styal Mill
Route Description
From the Rugby club turn right to the end of King’s Road, cross over into Racecourse Road, and turn right into Newgate. After 500m turn right on a footpath, cross the old tip, and climb the hill, dropping down to meet a road at Morley Green. Cross over and take the road opposite (leads to the ‘Honey Bee’), turning left into Dooley’s Lane after about 600m. Keep to the right of the private drive, following the footpath onto open fields, and then turn right on a footpath leading to the Holiday Inn (A538).
At the Holiday Inn cross the main A538 to reach the hotel, turn left up the approach road, and go right through a gate onto the airport footpath. Follow the footpath alongside the runway, and onto the old Styal Road (now dead end). About 300m along this road (before the gate) take a footpath left, and follow it to Moss Lane, turn left and follow the road all the way round to the Styal Road (B5166). Turn left, towards the airport.
Follow the Styal Road over a railway bridge, and take a footpath on the right leading alongside the railway, and then crossing a railway bridge and straight on along a field edge. Climb a locked gate to gain a farmyard/farm track which bends to the right around the farm buildings. Go round the glasshouses and keep straight on following a footpath across common land. Turn left at the end of the common land but continue in the same general direction to get to Clay Lane.
At Clay Lane turn right, and keep going straight to reach an old-people’s home on the left and join Station Road. Go past Styal Station to the tee-junction, turn left and then immediately cross Styal Road and follow the track (Holt’s Lane) in front of some houses, to get to the top of Styal Mill. Options then are to go down the hill to Styal Mill and return via the woods, or to keep left across the car-park and take the top road to Twinney’s Bridge, and hence back to the Rugby Club.
