Edale Horseshoe

Monday 6th May 2002

While continuing to plan for my first visit to the Lake District in the summer I had an idea to do a walk around Edale. Ten years before this walk I used to do walks around Edale with my father, a fact that he’d recently reminded me and which perhaps prompted me to return to my old stomping ground for a walk that was bigger than any I’d previously done in the area. I wanted to do a really long and strenuous walk to get me into training for the summer and this seemed a good candidate. With hindsight this walk maybe wasn’t as long as I’d hoped (possibly due to using the train), and I have walked much longer distances since. There is a popular fell race that goes all the way around Edale called ‘The Don Morrison Memorial Edale Skyline’ (the 2012 race is this weekend, Sunday 25th March). This gruelling fell race is a lot longer than I was capable of back in 2002, even if I just walked all the way round. Instead I walked the second half of the race and I had a wonderful time with just one problem.

I caught a train first thing in the morning to the railway station in the centre of Edale and from there I walked to Grindsbrook Booth, the start not only of the Edale Skyline Fell Race, but also of the Pennine Way. From this small, picturesque settlement I took a clear path heading north up the prominent hillside that zigzags towards the Nab and the rocks known as Ringing Roger. From there I proceeded along the excellent path that skirts around the broad Kinder Plateau past stunning rock formations that include the Wool Packs and Crowden Tower. Kinder Scout was a popular place that day due to excellent weather with the top of Grindsbrook Clough particularly thronged with people, more than I’d ever seen on Kinder (or since). It is astonishing how a hill that can be really nasty and dangerous in bad weather will have young children walking around it when the weather is good.

The weather was so good I needed to put a lot of sun cream on, but I’d forgotten to take any with me so while I was enjoying the stunning scenery and the hot weather my skin was slowly burning and turning red raw. I had also gotten sunburnt less than a year before while on holiday in Cornwall because I hadn’t put any sun cream on so it was particularly frustrating to be burnt again through my own stupidity. After this walk I vowed that I would always take sun cream with me while walking and that I would always use it. And since this walk while I have, probably on many occasions, put cream on needlessly, I have never become burnt because I didn’t put sun cream on.

Back to the walk and, after rounding Edale Head and crossing the Pennine Way, I headed across the broad grassy hill of Brown Knoll. Up to this point I had been wearing a pair of trail shoes that I’d recently bought. I’d never worn shoes like it before and this was the first time I’d done a proper walk in them, and I loved them. The lightness of the shoe compared with walking boots gave me a real spring in my step as I skipped over the rocks on the Kinder Edge, but when I got to Brown Knoll I was faced with a vast area of bog which my trail shoes would struggle to cope with. Fortunately I had my walking boots in my rucksack (partly because I didn’t trust my new shoes, and also in order for me to get used to carrying a heavy load). Once I changed into my boots I was able to traverse the morass with my boots making light work of the deep mud even though I sank into the mud on several occasions.

After passing an air shaft from the railway tunnel that goes under Brown Knoll I reached the Chapel Gate track where I turned left onto the broad track that traverses Rushup Edge. On reaching Mam Nick I abandoned the second half of the Edale Skyline and took a path through Harden Clough back to the railway station so I could catch a train home. This was a stunning walk in gloriously hot weather around a fantastic valley. I have a lot of memories of great walks around Edale and this walk was one of the best.