Five Dales Walk

Saturday 23rd July 2016

After a dull, wet start to July last year, it was a relief when the sun finally came out for the last week or two of the month and I was able to go for a walk with the Peak District beckoning me, so I drove up the M1 to Miller’s Dale Station that lies on the disused railway line between Matlock and Buxton. The walk that I ended up doing was actually one that I’d originally done way back in 1998 and was based on a walk that I’d found in a book of my father’s called ‘On Foot in the Peak District’. To make a change I decided to do the walk in the opposite direction, so from the station I headed into Monk’s Dale, which I remembered from nineteen years ago was really tricky underfoot. After the recent wet weather it was very damp and slippery at the bottom of this dark, narrow, wooded valley, but it was also gloriously overgrown underneath the dense canopy with moss everywhere and vegetation encroaching on the slimy rock path from all directions. As magical and eerie as the place was, I spent most of my time concentrating on keeping a secure footing rather than absorbing the fabulous surroundings.

Beyond a road the valley continues into Peter Dale, but after a short rock-walled ravine the valley deteriorates into a broad grass-covered valley that had been churned up by grazing cattle and made the surface almost as difficult to walk upon as in Monk’s Dale, but without the compensation of trees and plants. When I reached a second road I was in no mood to continue into Hay Dale, so I turned right onto the road and followed it out of the valley and over the hill into the picturesque village of Tideswell. On reflection, I think I must have taken the first road in 1998 and missed out Peter Dale, which in the end wasn’t worth the diversion, and is not included in the five dales of the title. After passing through Tideswell and the smaller village of Litton, I turned off the road and dropped into small Tansley Dale that soon leads into the pretty Cressbrook Dale. Tansley Dale was covered with little meadow flowers and there was a stunning arrangement of wild flowers at the junction between the two dales that was frustratingly at the same time as problems with my camera.

Cressbrook Dale is as wooded as Monk’s Dale and had a little of the damp conditions underfoot, even though it’s not as narrow. It was still great surroundings to be walking in until I reached the cottages that herald the start of more road walking. So far on this walk I felt like I had been encountering either slippery rock within dark, damp valleys or dreary road walking and this road took me down to Cressbrook Mill. On the other side of the mill is Water-cum-Jolly Dale, which is a well-known valley that I have walked through many times since I was a child. The scene before me of the wide expansion of the river below a dramatic limestone cliff face is a very familiar one. However, for some reason I wasn’t particularly enthused by this stage of the walk, maybe because it is so familiar, or because I’d already been depressed by the road walking and the wet conditions underfoot elsewhere.

The valley soon becomes Miller’s Dale and eventually I reached Litton Mill where I once again encountered a road that I had to walk upon, though in this valley there are some dramatic cliffs that loom above the road and the grass verges are filled with many wild flowers. This road eventually leads to the village of Miller’s Dale where I had parked my car, however rather than climbing up to the station I continued beside the river into Chee Dale. I remember doing a walk a couple of years ago through Monsal Dale to Miller’s Dale and Chee Dale, and now I was copying that walk for the simple reason that I love Chee Dale. This valley is even narrower than Monk’s Dale and just as damp underfoot, so I think with hindsight this walk would have been better after a long dry spell as these narrow valleys hold onto moisture for a long time which made walking at the bottom of them slippery if there has been rain recently. I still loved walking through Chee Dale as there are some really spectacular sections where the valley enters a narrow ravine with sheer rock walls either side that require a bit of scrambling 

The path is forced onto stepping stones on the edge of the river at this point as the river fills the entire valley bottom. Normally I would be excited by the awesome surroundings, but on this occasion my mind was mostly on trying not to slip on the damp rocks. Eventually the valley opens out and splits into Great Rocks Dale and Wye Dale, but this was as far I was going to walk so I climbed up onto the Monsal Trail and followed the course of the old railway line all the way back to Miller’s Dale Station. On paper this should have been a good walk, but maybe it wasn’t sunny enough, or dry enough underfoot. My original walk, of 1998, had not gone through Chee Dale, but I felt motivated to tag that diversion onto the end of this walk simply because I hadn’t really been enjoying the walk up to that point, and always love Chee Dale.