Length:
24.7 km (15.4 mi) [shorter or longer walk possible, see below]
Ascent/Descent:
567 m
Net
Walking Time: ca. 6 hours 20 minutes
Toughness:
7 out of 10
Take 09.14 Manchester Piccadilly train from Sheffield, arrives Grindleford 09.29.
The train from Edale etc, down the Hope Valley,
arrives at 09.49, so you’d be a little behind the Sheffield group
(but maybe some of us will have a tea at the café and wait for you…).
From London, take the 07.02
Sheffield train from St. Pancras International, arriving Sheffield
at 09.04 and connect to the above train. [Or take a later train and play
catch-up.]
Return trains up the Hope Valley depart on xx.29.
Return trains down the Hope Valley to
Sheffield: xx.50 to 19.50, then 21.49 and 23.20. The last train connecting to
London is the 19.50!
From Grindleford Station, you ascend through
ancient oak woodlands to the eastern rim of the wooded Upper Derwent Valley
flanked by a continuous series of some of the most famous of the gritstone
escarpments - or edges - of the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National
Park, named after the colour of the grit stone. You follow the edges south,
with views along this stretch back along the Derwent River encompassing much of
the Central Peak District: Higger Tor and Stanage Edge, Win Hill, Lose Hill and
the Great Ridge, Kinder Scout as well as Eyam Moor across the valley.
After lunch you follow permissive paths through the Chatsworth Estate and drop
down through the steep wooded edge and past the magnificent Chatsworth House
(the UK's most liked Country House). You then join the Derwent River and return
along it through the scenic Chatsworth Park, landscaped by 'Capability' Brown
and Sir Joseph Paxton, situated in a glorious setting surrounded by wooded
hillsides, looking up to the classic gritstone edge scenery walked along
earlier. You pass through Baslow and a few other, more quiet villages, some
woods, marshland, a wooded wetland and finally along ancient packhorse routes
through quiet lush pastures back to Grindleford Station.
Walk
Options
(see the webpage or the pdf for details):
Plenty
of bus routes
that can cut off bits of the walk.
An alternative - more challenging - return route re-ascends the edges from Baslow village along the grassy slopes of the
valley and through the Curbar Gap to cross the upland Big Moor along the lonely
White Edge.
Elevenses or Lunch: Jolly's Catering Company in
a car park off Clodhall Lane (100m off route, 5.6 km/3.5 mi into the walk; The Robin Hood Inn in Baslow (10.4 km/6.4 mi, food all day); or
several options at the Chatsworth Estate (13.6 km/8.4 mi, open to 16.00 at least).
Tea: plenty of options in Baslow, Calver,
Grindleford and on the descent from the moor (White Edge ending). See webpage
or pdf for details.
3 comments:
12 sculptures from the Burning Man Festival, held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, USA will be making their UK debut at Chatsworth this spring. They will be put up in the non-ticketed part of the park, so presumably some or all will be visible from the walk route. https://www.chatsworth.org/events/burning-man/
Anyone going from London for this walk?
11 walkers today on an initially grey day, with the sun starting to break through around noon, then some dark clouds passing mid afternoon, which dropped about two dozens of raindrops per person, then grey again.
We saw a couple of mature red deer just off path in the woods off Tumbling Hill, which unusually did not give chase, despite staring us out. That may have been because the matching two stags, plus three more hinds were just the other side of the path (as we noticed after a while). Maybe they thought they had the measure of us? The paths along the edges a bit later were relatively quiet. Bilberries were admired (too early to eat them), a small herd of Highland Cows had to be negotiated, a cuckoo could be heard on Birchen Edge.
3 had dropped back and took a map-led shortcut from the Wellington Monument, 5 ate at the Robin Hood Inn (nicely refurbished during Covid), 3 picnickers moved on.
At Chatsworth, a course was being set up for some upcoming horse trials, we spotted 7 of the Burning Man sculptures and saw a heron landing in the Derwent. On the valley return route, the bluebells were weeks behind their brethren in the southeast, but not so the wild garlic, which was largely in flower. By Froggatt Bridge we saw a wild swimmer, downriver with her belongings in a waterproof bag towed behind her. And then, this being Derbyshire, there were lots of lambs, mostly very young. Some black, some white, some black and white.
The lunchers passed The Maynard Hotel with 30 minutes left before the 17.50 train (2 hours after the early finishers). Just enough time for a Chatsworth Gold.
n=11, w=mostly-overcast
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