Kinder Scout around the edge

Thursday 29th December 2005

For the last of my walks in the Peak District from 2005 I took advantage of clear weather to leap into the car and drive up to the Peak District for a walk around the Kinder plateau. I have walked around most of the top of Kinder Scout, but I had never been all the way around and I had also never been to the trig point at Kinder Low, so I was determined to correct these oversights while walking in very cold weather. I parked in a lay-by near to the Snake Pass Inn and crossing the road I passed through the wood crossing the River Ashop onto open country where I forded the Fair Brook and walked up Gate Side Clough beside a broken wall up onto the edge of Kinder Scout. There was a thick layer of frost covering the whole landscape under blue skies that provided me with tremendous wintry scenes as I slowly climbed up to the rocks on the northern edge of the Kinder plateau. The view north from the rocks at the top of the climb was spectacular looking across the Woodlands Valley at Oyster Clough and the deep gouge it makes into Alport Moor with Bleaklow visible on the horizon. Climbing a little further I reached the path that circumnavigates Kinder Scout and proceeded in a clockwise direction around the edge of the plateau across the top of Blackden Clough until I reached a point due north of the trig point at the eastern end of Kinder.

Striking out across the frosty heather I made my way across to the 590m trig point where I stopped to admire the view across the bleak and deserted moor. Turning towards Edale I headed towards the southern edge of Kinder Scout and reached the perimeter path near the top of Golden Clough. I was now in plenty of company as I started walking around the most popular half of Kinder Scout. From the top of Golden Clough along the southern edge and all the way along the western edge to the top of William Clough there were many other people in the clear, bitterly cold weather also enjoying the edges of the Kinder plateau. The views of Edale to the south, however, were marred by the low sun and low clouds blowing over the Lose Hill-Mam Tor ridge so any pictures that I took in that direction didn’t come out very well. With low cloud threatening to ruin my day I proceeded around the top of Grindsbrook Clough, across the head of Crowden Clough and through the assorted rocks known as the Wool Packs. I have been along this path many times so the assorted weathered rocks held little interest for me and the paved path was no longer the challenge it once was, and besides in this weather the bogs were all frozen solid.

Eventually I reached the Swine's Back (a low hill at the top of the Jacob's Ladder path) where I had my lunch. After visiting the Edale Cross, a medieval cross at the high-point between Edale and Hayfield, I returned to the Pennine Way and followed it past Edale Rocks to Kinder Low, which is the south-westerly trig point on Kinder and as close to the summit as is possible without a bit of guesswork. The trig point stands at 633m, while the highest point on the plateau is 636m somewhere north-east of Kinder Low. I had never actually been to Kinder Low before, but I don't really seem to have missed anything despite this being a very popular place with many people crowding the summit. It is funny how the other two trig points weren't as popular as this one! Continuing along the Pennine Way, the Kinder Downfall was clear for me to see ahead as my next port of call where the waterfall was completely frozen but I still couldn't get a good enough picture of it.

Rejoining the path after my fruitless clambering on the rocks around the Downfall I headed along the edge until after crossing a fence I headed out across the frozen wasteland to the third and final trig point on Kinder Scout. Judging by the total lack of footprints around the 624m trig point it didn't seem like anyone else had been to visit it recently, but they were missing a stunning scene across the wide expanse of the Kinder plateau. The remainder of the walk involved my heading north over the frozen bogs onto the northern edge of Kinder, where I headed east beside the northern edge around Fairbrook Naze and down Fairbrook Clough in darkening conditions back to my car. This was a fun walk in very cold weather, but I was still a little disappointed. I was hoping for some good pictures of Edale but the conditions just weren't cooperative enough and also to be honest I was hoping for a little more snow. The year before I did a walk along the northern edge of Kinder Scout in wintry conditions when the snow was much thicker and I was hoping for similar conditions again, but that wasn't to be the case.

Chrome Hill Revisited

Saturday 12th November 2005

I am looking back on my walks in the Peak District from 2005 and despite walking up Chrome Hill at the beginning of the year I couldn’t resist returning for a second time. I was determined to do the walk because I hadn't done one since September thanks to a busy time at work and to a lack of walking boots after my pair of less than a year had gone back to the manufacturer when the sole cracked on them. With many options for a walk available to me I got up too late for most of them and eventually decided to head back to Hollinsclough and repeat the great walk that had started me off on this great year of awesome walks around the British Isles. I was particularly keen to re-walk it as now I had a camera to record the event pictorially. I had not taken a camera on my earlier walk, but I had bought a camera for my week in Ireland the previous September so I was now ready to go.

However, although I had a camera I did forget to bring a map for the walk, but as I was following January's route exactly I didn't think I would need one since the route was easy to remember. I had planned on wearing my old worn out boots for the walk, but in the event I forgot them as well so instead I was wearing my trail shoes and these did fine even though they aren't waterproof, which wasn't too much of a problem (and now, in 2020, I would always use trail shoes for such a walk and would never consider wearing walking boots in the Peak District). Parking in Hollinsclough again I headed up the road and already I had views across the Dove valley towards Chrome Hill that looked fantastic in the sunny weather as I realised that I have a lot of affection for this fabulous hill.

Following January's route I crossed the River Dove and headed up onto the backbone of Hollins Hill along the edge of the steep drop above the Shallow Brook valley. Hollins Hill is not a particularly picturesque hill even though it is the highest of the three visited, but from the top I had clear views of Chrome Hill and the ridge of limestone that defines the hill and that is what makes it such a fun walk. Descending Hollins Hill I swung around the top of the Shallow Brook valley and began the interesting ascent up Chrome Hill over the limestone ridge, lingering over every step and upon every outcrop as I slowly made my way up to the summit. The ascent is not too steep and enabled me to enjoy every moment, unfortunately the clear blue skies that had greeted me when I set off had now become smothered by clouds which spoilt the many photos that I was taking.

Coming down the other side of Chrome Hill I now had a view, under overcast skies, of another limestone ridge that is smaller, but narrower. Parkhouse Hill is just as much fun as Chrome Hill and I had a great time climbing it again. In front is a big pillar of rock, and in January I had gone around, but now, after a year of challenging scrambles throughout the country, I felt like attempting it. Circling around I ascended from the back and soon quite easily managed to get to the top, although getting back down was a little more difficult, so it is important to remember not to climb anywhere you can’t successfully reverse your steps, but I survived this time to climb up to the top of the hill. Although smaller than Chrome Hill the steepness of the ridge made it just as satisfying to reach the top.

After descending steeply off the end I joined the path that follows the River Dove and headed back to Hollinsclough just as the sun came out once more, which enabled me to take a sun-lit picture of Parkhouse Hill to end the walk. Even though this walk had not taken me much longer than three hours to do, I still enjoyed it as I rarely do in the Peak District these days. A lifetime of walking in this National Park has made me over-familiar with the area and it can’t compete with the fabulous new places I was discovering at this time, but there are still one or two spots in the Peak District that are special.