Some of the most popular (and certainly most challenging!) rides in the Stockport Community Cycling Club calendar are the two annual hilly rides. There is one pencilled in soon. Andy S will be leading a new ride to Cannon Hall. However, due to our upcoming nuptials, Sarah and I will miss it. So, I suggested to Andy that I would like to join him when he recced the route. John R joined us too.

It starts from the Dunford Bridge car park at the bottom of the valley on NCN Route 62, the Trans Pennine Trail.

Straight out of the car park we began climbing.

We turned on to NCN Route 68 (a staple of Andy S’s and also part of the Pennine Cycleway) and passed Winscar Reservoir.

This climbed to the top of Harden Clough.

The next 3 miles brought a fantastic long downhill.

This took us down to Holmfirth.

However, out of Holmfirth brought us the toughest climb of the route as we made our way up to Haddingley.

The views out over South Yorkshire when we had reached the top were, however, fantastic.

The ride then followed the rolling high lanes through Denby.

Yet again there were more fantastic views.

We turned on to Bank End Lane.

At High Hoyland, we turned again and dropped down to Cannon Hall Country Park.

We stopped at Cannon Hall Farm for lunch.

There was an excellent choice of sandwiches and burgers to choose from.

Pretty much as soon as we had finished lunch, we crossed over Barnsley Road and were soon on to the second major climb of the day.

It was also directly into a strong headwind. I admit, my legs were gone, and this proved a tough climb for me. I was grateful to reach the top of the climb just before Halifax Road.

We then made our way into Penistone.

Here we rejoined the Trans Pennine Trail.

This final section joins the Upper Don Valley Trail.

There are quite a few interesting pieces of artwork along the trail.

Eventually, we arrived back at Dunford Bridge. We had only cycled 28 miles, but these had been challenging miles. The scenery all the way around had made the pain of all that climbing almost worth it. 🙂

You can view the route of our Cannon Hall Recce route below: