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- May 27, 2018
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This strenuous walk cuts through the boundary land between the Dark and White Peak areas of the Peak District National Park. A steep ascent up to Win Hill opens tremendous views to the surrounding Upper Derwent Valley reservoirs, the Vales of Edale and Hope and the exposed and isolated tracts of rugged moorlands, covered by cotton grass bogs and heather, and dramatically sculpted gritstone escarpments (or ‘edges’) of the Peak District’s iconic Dark Peak area.
From there you follow a heathery ridge running northwest to steeply descend and re-ascend to Lose Hill, the easterly end of The Great Ridge, which separates the vales of Edale and Hope. It extends for approximately 3 kilometres to Mam Tor at the western end and is very popular (in benign conditions). Mam Tor, once the home of Iron Age people, is on the southern edge of the Dark Peak (sandstones) and overlooks the White Peak (limestones), including the notable deep cut dry gorge of Winnats Pass.
Despite a lunch pub just off route, this walk lends itself to a picnic lunch on one of the tops or on the ridge. Diversions to lunch or a finish in Hope and Castleton are described, as are an alternative start from Hope Station and shortcuts from the Great Ridge to Edale, as well as an extension across Brown Knoll’s upland peat bog and down from the head of the Vale of Edale via Jacob’s Ladder (path).
From there you follow a heathery ridge running northwest to steeply descend and re-ascend to Lose Hill, the easterly end of The Great Ridge, which separates the vales of Edale and Hope. It extends for approximately 3 kilometres to Mam Tor at the western end and is very popular (in benign conditions). Mam Tor, once the home of Iron Age people, is on the southern edge of the Dark Peak (sandstones) and overlooks the White Peak (limestones), including the notable deep cut dry gorge of Winnats Pass.
Despite a lunch pub just off route, this walk lends itself to a picnic lunch on one of the tops or on the ridge. Diversions to lunch or a finish in Hope and Castleton are described, as are an alternative start from Hope Station and shortcuts from the Great Ridge to Edale, as well as an extension across Brown Knoll’s upland peat bog and down from the head of the Vale of Edale via Jacob’s Ladder (path).
