The Cloud

The Cloud or Bosley Cloud is a prominent hill on the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire a couple of miles west of the Peak District National Park boundary. At 343m in height, it is one of the highest hills in the area. Its heather-covered summit plateau is crowned by a trig point from which extensive views over Congleton, Biddulph, Macclesfield, Holmes Chapel, and the Greater Manchester area can be enjoyed. The Cloud sits at the northern apex of a triangle formed by the broken ridge which runs along the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire and the hills stretching south through Biddulph Moor into Staffordshire. To its north, the River Dane wraps around its lower slopes whilst the A523 road runs to its east through the village of Bosley in Southeast Cheshire. GeologyThe summit and upper slopes are formed from the coarse and pebbly Chatsworth Grit, a thick sandstone which forms a part of the Millstone Grit and which dates from the Namurian stage of the Carboniferous period. The lower slopes are formed from mudstones which are not generally exposed. The hill owes its shape in part to the passage of ice around its flanks in successive ice ages.

The Cloud or Bosley Cloud is a prominent hill on the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire a couple of miles west of the Peak District National Park boundary. At 343m in height, it is one of the highest hills in the area. Its heather-covered summit plateau is crowned by a trig point from which extensive views over Congleton, Biddulph, Macclesfield, Holmes Chapel, and the Greater Manchester area can be enjoyed. The Cloud sits at the northern apex of a triangle formed by the broken ridge which runs along the border between Cheshire and Staffordshire and the hills stretching south through Biddulph Moor into Staffordshire. To its north, the River Dane wraps around its lower slopes whilst the A523 road runs to its east through the village of Bosley in Southeast Cheshire. GeologyThe summit and upper slopes are formed from the coarse and pebbly Chatsworth Grit, a thick sandstone which forms a part of the Millstone Grit and which dates from the Namurian stage of the Carboniferous period. The lower slopes are formed from mudstones which are not generally exposed. The hill owes its shape in part to the passage of ice around its flanks in successive ice ages.