First day at Dunham

With a fairly short run today we made a lazy start. I nipped down to the Tesco Express for some more fresh stuff and we got away at about a quarter to nine. It was a pleasant plod through Lymm to the water point by The Old No 3, where we had to queue for a bit before we could start refilling the tank.

We didn’t stop to fill it right up; the tap is quite slow and there were at least two more boats queuing by the time we’d got to three quarters full. Off we went again; although the canal is deep and wide, you can’t go very fast because of all the offside moorings between Lymm and Dunham.

If the Manchester Ship Canal is basically a set of linear docks, the Bridgewater is a set of linear marinas.

On Peter’s advice, we’ve tied by Bollington Underbridge. You can walk down some steps and under the canal here, then follow a series of tracks and minor roads, past The Swan with Two Nicks and Bollington Mill to a footpath leading to an easy stile into Dunham Massey Park.

We've had a good wander round and paid two visits to the Dunham Mill, originally a corn mill but latterly a saw mill. The park was being well used by the locals; the fallow deer herd is very tame and seemed almost completely unconcerned by all the folk milling around.

We’ll stay here tomorrow and go round the house and formal gardens when it will, hopefully, be quieter than today.