A ~2 hour run around the Shutingsloe area. It should be cold and sunny so bring your gloves and sunglasses. Tea and cake at Bullocks Lane Garden Centre afterwards.
Remember to put your clocks back 1 hour Sat. night or you may be a bit early.
If travelling by car, the Standing Stone car park is reached as follows: Drive out of Macc town centre along the Buxton road (A537). Pass through the village of Walker Barn. Take the unmarked road off to the right on a left hand bend shortly after Walker Barn. At a T junction, turn right. On a left hand bend, turn right (the Stanley Arms pub is on the left here) - this is signposted to Wildboarclough. Take the next right (signposted to Forest Chapel). Do not take the right turn to Forest Chapel, but continue straight on. The Standing Stone car park is on the right.
Regular visitors to Macclesfield Forest will be well aware of the curiously named ‘Standingstone’ car park. This must have been so named for a reason, but the question is where did this so called standing stone stand and how old was it? Various sources record a number of ‘stones’ in the area of what is today Macclesfield Forest, but unfortunately the majority have now disappeared. There is one remaining standing stone, which is undoubtedly used as a rubbing post today, and can be seen in a field at Higher Ridgegate to the left of the road close to the Leathers Smithy pub. One of the best documented however, is that reported by Dr J.D.Sainter, Watkin and Earwaker once located in the same field as a tumulus to the north-west of Toot Hill. According to the County Sites and Monuments Record a ‘prostrate unworked stone post probably a rubbing post’ was reported by the Ordnance Survey in 1964, but sadly this could not be located on a subsequent visit in 1972. The Reverend Marriott also described and illustrated two ‘rude upright stones’ on the summit of Shutlingsloe in 1810.
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