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ARC Trail Challenges

  • Rob
  • May 6
  • 2 min read

Bored of pavements and looking for a scenic route or an arbitrary trail challenge? The sub-group you’ve never heard of, Ancoats Run Club, have compiled some favourite trails and cooked up a few daft ideas to try. We’ve even tested some ourselves!



  1. Hobson Moor

The classic ARC midweek evening route.


Park on Hobson Moor road and head up to the trig point on Wildbank Hill via the track. From the trig head east and enjoy the well trodden path down to Lees Hill before looping back to the car. It’s 8km with 200m of ascent.


Trail notes

There’s some debate over whether the route is faster clockwise or anticlockwise…



  1. Idiots Abroadbottom

You vs a train timetable and 17km of hills around the Etherow Valley.


Get a train from Piccadilly to Broadbottom. Your run starts from the moment you step onto the platform. From the station make your way to the checkpoints below via any route you choose before returning to the station and your train home. Return trains depart every 30mins, so choose one you think you can make!


Trail notes

The current fastest attempt stands at 1:40. We think it’s possible to get round in 90mins


Want to up the ante? Book a roast dinner in Manchester at a time that you can only make if you reach your selected return train from Broadbottom. Nothing better to power you up a hill than having a yorkshire pudding on the line.


Checkpoints:

  1. Broadbottom station (Lat, long: 53.44077, -2.01672)

  2. Tom Wood (Lat, long: 53.43608, -2.003400)

  3. Coombes Rocks (Lat, long: 53.42430, -1.97227)

  4. Ernocroft Woods/Glossop Road (Lat, long: 53.41702, -2.03195)

  5. Werneth Low masts (Lat, long: 53.43364, -2.04841)

  6. Broadbottom station (Lat, long: 53.44077, -2.01672)




  1. Werneth Low Chippy Run

Chips on a hill, featuring a run.


Start from the car park at Werneth Low Visitor Centre and run up the track to reach the Cenotaph. Contour clockwise around the hill, briefly touching tarmac when flying down Apple Street. Cut through fields past Beacom Houses, and then turn sharply uphill to the crossroads at the top of Joel Lane before heading back to the Cenotaph.


Trail notes

Celebrate your huge 5km with chips from the Village Chippy in Gee Cross. Best enjoyed on a bench back near the Cenotaph looking out over Manchester.




  1. Greenfield elevation

Ian’s favourite spiky route. It’s gross.


Get the train to Greenfield. From the station climb up to Pots and Pans and over to Alderman’s hill, before dropping down to Yeoman Hey dam. Climb the hill from the dam to Ashway Stone and follow the edge to Dove Stone Rocks, before dropping down to the footbridge at the bottom of Chew Brook. Then - you guessed it - climb the hill to Alphin Pike before dropping down into Greenfield. With any luck you should have 14km and 850m of climbing.




  1. Peak pub safari

A free-form tour of pubs named after animals.


Run to as many pubs as you can that are named after animals. Each new animal gets you a point. Mythical creatures count, as do different names for the same animal. We’ve not actually tried this, but New Mills, Whaley Bridge and Disley look promising…


Trail notes

Please don’t attempt as an actual pub crawl; it’d be hard to explain to the mountain rescue team…

 
 
 

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