RIVER DANE (Gradbach to Rushton Spencer)

[Mark R]

Guide.

[hellboy]

macclsfield female paddler died on river sunday 3rd october 2010

[scruffydave]

Paddled in early October - some hazard info: The section down past the car park to the youth hostel looks very overgrown now, so I would recommend getting in by the Youth Hostel itself. The tree which for many years had been stuck about half way down the gorge had been swept away BUT a new more dangerous tree is FULLY across the river at the entrance to the gorge section. It is a big one and doesnt look like it will be swept away by winter floods. We also encountered (and removed) baling twine fully across the river which had clearly been deliberately put there to catch paddlers, along with a couple of sheep fences which had been there before.

A guide to water levels: look right over the wall at the far left-hand corner of the gradbach car park. If there are 5 bricks above water level showing it will be a good trip. Four bricks? - well I've not paddled it at that level but it would I imagine be a handfull - depending on your ability of course. Flash water takes about an hour to fully get into the river so if you get on even when the rain is just stopping it will continue to rise. However it drops equally quickly.

[andy wa]

paddled the Dane yesterday, did the classic section. It was 5.9 at congleton bridge. Check out: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ho ... ionId=5036

it was very high spate conditions.

[Jim Pullen]

paddled the Dane yesterday, did the classic section. It was 5.9 at congleton bridge. Check out: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ho ... ionId=5036

it was very high spate conditions.

So is that around 0.55m on the EA gauge?

[andy wa]

yeah i think so.

Also did the dane today!(5th time!) such a different river in lower water, it was a good medium flow with lots of rocks showing and plenty of eddys, easy to get down, mainly grade 2-3. On the EA website at congleton, it was 0.35. I would say you wouldnt want to get on with to much below this.

Andy

[Pete K]

Not paddled the Dane but I've been working at Gradbach YHA this week and walked along the section immediatly downstream of the YHA. There has been a significant rockfall about half a kilometre from the YHA, and I do mean significant. The entire river is blocked bank to bank and the debris will not wash away, were talking 2-300 tones of cliff face now making a large dam. Portage would be scrambly but simple but as the water goes through the blockage it would no doubt cause some nasty syphons. Looks like it is a slip from this winter as the rock looks freshly exposed. Take care.

[andy wa]

Paddled the Dane today. There has been 2 landslides, one small one which doesnt effect the river just after the tree at the start of the gorge and another one towards the end of the gorge secton, about half way down. This is a decent landslide that creates a pool at the top of it making it easy to portage, we portaged on the right below where the land slide has come from. It may be possible to paddle over the top on the left, but there i some trees in it at the moment.

Cheers
Andy

[B.Lowe]

A group of us paddled the Dane yesterday. There was 2 strands of barbed wire across the river about half way down. Sorry cant be more specific because I can't quite remember how far down it was exactly. Could sneak through at the time but could be difficult in other levels.

[B.Lowe]

We also paddled Clough Brook that flows into the Dane river right. We got on from a layby on the side road that runs next to the river about a kilometer above the A54 bridge over the Clough Brooke, just over half way to Wildboarclough. There was nice 6 foot drop we got on above. However the 300 meters or so above the A54 bridge has about 5 fences across the river, some of them chicken wire fences, some barbed wire and some a mixture of both. It would be worth getting off when you get to a small foot bridge and portaging to the A54 bridge. There is possibly a fence portage before the footbridge though so keep alert. The rest of the river was nice grade 2/3 with a few tree portages, similar to the dane really. Its a nice river shame about the fences really.

[pritch1]

Ran this last night great fun river, water levels were around 0.4 as far as i can tell.

Two main portages one the large tree which blocks the entire river and one fence both were easily portaged. Also the section above the hostel is tree ridden but we managed it at this water level without having to get out.

Please see link to a video i quickly threw together, doesn't do the river justice really but will give you an idea.

[andypagett]

Please see link to a video I quickly threw together, doesn't do the river justice really but will give you an idea.

Looks ace. Definitely one for my list in a few years when my paddling ability catches up with the list of things I want to paddle :)

[andy wa]

Having paddled this river quite a bit, if you are thinking of paddling this river, it might be worth asking nicely if you can use the hostel grounds to access the river, maybe a small donation for parking towards their break for kids charity?

andy

[andy wa]

Did the lower section of this today from Dane bridge to Rushton Spencer in open boats, a good grade 2 trip. a few trees to dodge round and only one portage around the weir. EA gauge was at about 0.50 at Rushton Spencer, a good medium flow, you couldnt do much lower in open boats but you could in kayaks. Andy

[andypagett]

Did the lower section of this today from Dane bridge to Rushton Spencer in open boats, a good grade 2 trip. a few trees to dodge round and only one portage around the weir. EA gauge was at about 0.50 at Rushton Spencer, a good medium flow, you couldnt do much lower in open boats but you could in kayaks. Andy

I hadn't realised (ie hadn't read the guide properly) that there were 2 distinct sections - ie it is possible to miss out the hard stuff. Might have a look at this one weekend. Any tips / notes etc?