Cheshire walks: Around Pickmere Lake in the snow

Elated by last night’s dump of snow I headed out this morning to enjoy our white winter wonderland. I decided on a circuit of our local lake, Pickmere, with a slight detour to the lime avenue at Great Budworth, walking partly on the narrow country lanes and partly along some of the public footpaths that criss-cross local farmland. I’ve included a map of where I walked – the numbers mark the kilometres (this was about 6.5kms all up so quite a short wander) and the blue dots are the places where the following photos were taken (sometimes more than one at each spot) (a small selection of the 200-plus I took!). 

I hope you enjoy walking along with me – it was magical!

We start off via the footpath that runs along the top of Pickmere Lake. It's a favourite walk for local dog-owners.

Looking out across the lake. That’s the tower of the church at Great Budworth on the skyline.

On Park Lane, looking back across the lake. This is one of my favourite trees hereabouts.

Looking in the opposite direction, over the fields towards the Millenium Wood. There’s another footpath that heads in that direction and it's also a lovely walk - another day, another blog.

The lane heads through a small section of wood called Pickmere Rough.

Three photos from this spot. The first is looking over farmer’s fields on the other side of the Rough.

And, from the same spot, looking over the fields towards Great Budworth.

And the third shot looks over the fields towards Hield House Farm. As you can see, the clouds were looking threatening at this point so I started striding out for Great Budworth.

The magnificent lime avenue at Great Budworth. It’s a long planting that runs either side of this narrow footpath. I sheltered here while a hail and sleet shower passed through.

From halfway along the lime avenue, I headed down this public footpath across the local farmer’s fields.

There are a couple of photos from points along this footpath – this first one has the lime avenue on the right and looks towards the Church of St Mary at Great Budworth.

This path is very muddy during the winter months, but was made easier today by the covering of snow, though I had to be careful not to slip!

The footpath comes out on to Hield Lane, which changes its name at the bottom of this slope to Dark Lane (the border between neighbouring councils runs through at this point, changing from Cheshire East to Cheshire West and Chester).

Looking back towards Pickmere Lake, along one of the streams that feeds into it.

On Dark Lane now, looking back toward Hield Lane and Hield House Farm.

And my last shot for today, taken of my favourite trees in Earle’s Lane, before I headed home to dry my wet feet and warm up with a hot cuppa. I hope you enjoyed my stride in the snow as much as I did!