Hayfield - XC(ish) routes?

If rocky is out of the question then I can only think of the sett valley trail, which is a disused railway line , fairly flat and smooth

Stay west of the A624. Either a loop of Lantern pike - Sett Valley Trail to Birch Vale. Up to Wethercotes and stay on the farm track to the split with the descent to Rowarth. Take the right fork towards the junction above blackshaw farm. Then take the pennine bridleway to the east of lantern pike all the way back to birch vale. Then back along the sett valley to hayfield or jump on the A6015 west for about 300 metres then take the steep tarmac road up past the quarry which turns into a RUPP/BOAT(keeping the quarry on your left). Keep going south past moor lodge and the junction with Laneside road, this turns into OverHill road. Take a sharp left up steep bridleway just before throstle bank. Keep going straight at the junction with new allotments. The next bridleway junction you have a few options to drop down to hayfield. Easy would be right/east down to peep o day. Straight on is a fast grassy descent, then right down the little bit rocky, steep descent into foxholes clough (most fun option), or you could stay left past the tv mast, down the bridleway back to birch vale and the sett valley trail again. Big brain dump, sorry. All old school XC type stuff.

What beagle said ^^. We call it the Chinley Churn route.
There's some good riding out of Hayfield using some of the Sett valley trail and Peak forest canal that takes you around Lyme park Only a few permissive trails there as it's mostly NT propery), or into Marple (lots of bridleways around Marple and Strines), where you could ride different loops for hours and pootle back on the canal and Sett Valley trail back to Hayfield.

If you stick fast tyres on the Epic and don't mind riding back lanes a bit, there's actually quite a lot you can do mixing up easy bridleway and quiet roads. Eg: out of Hayfield up Highgate Road, continue on the bridleway then down to Peep of Day, down Maynestone Road to Chinley, pick up the old Tramway to Bugsworth Basin, then along the canal to Whaley Bridge then a loop of the classic Whaley/Taxal - Buxton loop. You can also reach that via the road that heads up past what was a quarry and is now a tip, below New Allotments - all the way to the end of the rough track then down onto Dolly Lane and hit Bugsworth that way.

Taxal loop runs from the big lay-by at the bottom of Long Hill then cuts over to Errwood Res, up the Yorkshire Bridge on the Goyt Valley Road, over the old road to Buxton - the only really rough bit - then back over the top round Ladder Hill and back into Whaley.

Or a lot of the stuff around Roman Lakes is very tame, links possible via the Paper Mill track and the canal tow path. A propos of which, you can always hit the canal from New Mills - head down the Sett Valley Trail - pick up the canal then along to Marple, short section of road, Middlwood Way to Bollington, then back along the Macc Canal or even over the Brickworks on the road, but cutting left on the path over the top to Bowstones, then dropping over the Kettleshume on back roads followed by a potter over the Start Lane cobbles into Whaley, then take the bridleway that cuts the corner over to Furness Vale and the canal again...

You could even cut over the top via back lanes to Sparrowpit then pick up the easier tracks on the other side of the valley from Rushup Edge - there's a nice bridleway that cuts up from near the bottom of Perrydale and take you most of the way over to the top of Pindale, from where you can drop into Castleton on tarmac and back over via the broken road and back lanes down to The Wash, eventually.

Sorry, I suspect most of that is as clear as mud, but there is a lot around in a kind of gravelly way.

Thanks all.

When I said no rocks or lumps, I'd be OK on something similar to the Roman Road or WLT but at the minute trails like The Beast, Jacob's or Spud Alley would batter my ankles a bit too much.

If that opens up anything else?

Shooting cabins would be nice but MIGHT be a bit much for you, I've not ridden it in a while tbh.
How far / long do you want to ride? I can knock up some gpx files if you like?

Some of this has been mentioned earlier... but suggest...

Gentle start down Sett Valley trail to Birch Vale, quick stop at Sett Valley Cafe to pick up a pie for later. After that...

Option 01, head up Over Hill Road then New Allotments, for a descent down Hills Farm to top of Peep O'Day (Hayfield/Chapel Rd), then do the descent to Hayfield Campsite (Coldwell Clough?).
Option 02, head up Moorland Rd and descend to Phoside to get on Highgate Rd lower down, head towards Elle bank woods and join the Hayfield Campsite descent lower down to the bottom.

From there, you can head to the Shooting Cabin either:
01. Short version - Cross the river and go up past 20 trees,
02. Short-ish version - Spin down Kinder rd to the reservoir and go up,
03. Long version - Go down Edale Rd, up past Harry Moor for a nice long grassy downhill to the bottom of the res, and up as per 2.

Once at Shooting cabin, go down Middle Moor to the bottom of Chunal to Carr Meadow Farm. Up to Monk Rd, then either;

01. Short - head down past Lantern Pike to come back in Birch Vale and return to Hayfield.
02. Long - heading to Laneside Farm and descending into Rowarth, before riding to Gunn Rd, up and down Cown Edge and returning to Lantern Pike to finish as above.

Not sure how much sense that will make, but I've written it now, so...

FYI - I have a copy of the following:

https://www.bikemaps.co.uk/peak-district-mtb/hayfield-mountain-biking.htm

More than happy to email across if you PM me.

When I said no rocks or lumps, I’d be OK on something similar to the Roman Road or WLT but at the minute trails like The Beast, Jacob’s or Spud Alley would batter my ankles a bit too much.

If that opens up anything else?

You know the campside/Coldwell Clough, right? I'd say that's pretty standard for the trails round here. If you feel happy riding that, you'll be okay on pretty much everything bar the Roych and Jacob's I guess, maybe avoid the drop into Rowarth which is short, but quite steppy. If the thought of the campsite descent is making you wince, then maybe avoid that and possibly Middle Moor, though there's a smoother 'cheat line' off to the right now, so you can avoid most of the chunder there.

It's really going to depend a lot on how smooth a rider you are and how gung ho you want to be. I'd offer to show you round, but I'm currently knackered by some sort of post-viral rubbish. In all honesty, there's nowt wrong with the Vertebrate routes for starters, though there's some nice footpath stuff that's worth riding too.

You'll be fine riding a loop around Lyme park. I'll ask NBT to send you a route.
It's a case of getting off the Peak Forest canal at Disley (swing bridge), climbing up past chicken far, to A6.
There is a back route into the Park by the Church, then options for riding different easy trails (in a loop).

Chicken farm (not far - doh!)

THis will get you up to Lyme Park and back with a nice loop. You can explore Lyme to add interest - there's a few trails around The Knott for instance - or just get off the bike and have a wander around

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/43101712

Happy tp knock up more if that's of interest

Thanks again everyone.

In the end I kind of mashed up the suggestions from @beagle and @only1mikey ...

Hayfield > Sett Valley >Birch Vale > Lantern Pike > Overhill Road > New Allotments ? Peep O'Day > Phoside > Kinder Road > Shooting Cabin > Twenty Trees > Hayfield

Ankle held up on the lumpier bits, and riding it on the old Epic was a reminder how good current bikes are. Stuff I'd straight line on the RocketMAX actually needed thought and actual bike riding on a steep 2012 120mm machine! All good old-school fun though. Will need to go back and try some of the other variations on the big bike at some point.

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