After a short-lived dispute between Jimmy and myself with regard to navigation (and for the record, it was me that was right!), we had descended most of the hill from Pott Shrigley and were down at the beautiful old stone bridge at Harrop Brook.  In short order, we were then on Oakenbank Road and then at Oakenbank Clough.

Coming out of Oakenbank Clough, the folly of White Nancy loomed large on the hill before us, suddenly a much more imposing sight than the previous hours where it had been a small but recognisable white speck on the horizon.  Back in the early 1960s, some local youths thought it would be good sport to paint it black after a drunken night out.  Which they did.  Many in the Macclesfield and Bollington areas, to this day, have had their own theories as to the culprits of this vandalism.  My paternal grandfather, dance bandleader Norman 'Bronc' Read was absolutely convinced that it was Manchester University students during their rag week.  However, I have know for many years who it was.  It was my dad, and his mates.  A little further along the ridge leading to Kerridge Hill is a small area of woodland where my brother and I scattered my dad's ashes after he passed away in October 2005.  Jimmy and I diverted for a quick look at the area, but not for long, with neither of us having particularly great appetites for sentimentality or morbidity.  Instead, we laughed over a few shared memories, including recalling the day of scattering the ashes when Jimmy put the urn in his rucksack - and then carried his grandad up the hill on his back!

There was a good panorama over Bollington from by White Nancy, although neither of us realised that we would be returning there so soon.  Although it demanded another diversion off the Gritstone Trail route, Jimmy was keen to take in the trig point at the summit of Kerridge Hill while in the vicinity.  The walk up there suddenly becomes a little airy as the approach gets steeper, simultaneous with the ridge getting dramatically narrower.  Photograph taken, it was time to rejoin the Gritstone Trail for the final leg of an easy day's walking.