Excited youngsters were scooting around the old railway station at Miller’s Dale, learning to ride their bikes on a Sunday afternoon in the safe surroundings of the Monsal Trail while their mothers went quietly frantic. ‘Tom! Tom! Just wait there, please!’ ‘But Mum, I can do it, look…!’
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Facebook Link:
The Peak Park have done a wonderful conversion job on the old railway line through the canyon-like dales between Buxton and Bakewell. It’s hard to credit that passenger and goods trains once rattled under the sheer limestone cliffs and hanging woods where cyclists, walkers and riders now disport themselves. Once we had dropped down the bank into adjoining Monk’s Dale, the leisure crowds melted away and we had the snaking dale and its slippery stone path to ourselves.
Monk’s Dale is just one of dozens of narrow clefts in the limestone countryside of Derbyshire’s White Peak. You’d never know the dale was there at all until you were on its brink. Down in the depths a long damp wood of ash and oak carried us north, until we turned aside to climb the walled lane of the Pennine Bridleway between weather-twisted thorn trees, up to the roof of Wormhill Hill. Up here the whole feel of the country changed dramatically, from a prospect hemmed in by towering cliffs to huge views over rain-swept countryside squared by stone walls and dotted with sheep.
Over the crest beyond Old Hall Farm, a monstrous limestone quarry was soon hidden by screening trees. Fat white rams cropped the pastures with their characteristic, impatient jerks of the head. At Mosley Farm a trio of young sheepdogs came out in a rush to sniff us over. Then it was down the zigzag path into Chee Dale, another stunning view suddenly revealed at the brink of the gorge – sheer pale grey cliffs thick with jackdaws, dreadnought prows of limestone jutting into the dale where handsome arched viaducts carried the old railway line across the River Wye.
Narrowly avoiding death by hurtling cyclist (where’s your bloody bell, boy?) we turned along the Monsal Trail, through lamp-lit tunnels and over bridges where daredevils were abseiling into the depths, until the old station at Miller’s Dale appeared once more around the bend.
Start & finish: Millers Dale car park, near Tideswell, Derbys SK17 8SN (OS ref SK 138733)
Getting there: Bus: Service 68 (Buxton-Castleton) to Miller’s Dale car park; 65, 66, 193 to Millers Dale on B6049, just below.
Road: A6 (Buxton-Matlock); B6049 to Miller’s Dale. Turn up side road (‘Wormhill’) to car park (moderate charge).
WALK (7 and a half miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL24):
Left up road for 100 m; right over stile (140734; fingerpost). Through gate; left into Monk’s Dale. Valley floor path for 1 and a half miles to road (131753). Left; in 50 m, left up steep path; follow ‘Pennine Bridleway’/PBW. At top of rise, right at T-junction (129747) along walled lane to road (122745). Right for 50 m; left (PBW) into Old Hall farmyard. Left (‘bridleway’) through gate. Pass old barn on right; through left-hand of 2 gates; on with wall on right. Keep ahead through hunting gates for two thirds of a mile to road (110746). Follow PBW for 1 and a quarter miles to Mosley Farm (115730). Through farmyard (‘footpath’ signs); just beyond, left through gate (PBW); descend into Chee Dale; left, and follow Monsal Trail to Miller’s Dale car park.
NB: Slippery path in Monk’s Dale!
Lunch: Picnic; or Red Lion, Littleton (01298-871458; www.theredlionlitton.co.uk)
Accommodation: George Hotel, Tideswell (01298-871382; www.tght.co.uk);
Ravenstor Youth Hostel, Miller’s Dale (0845-371-9655; www.yha.org.uk/hostel/ravenstor)
Readers’ Walks: Come and enjoy a country walk with our experts!
Holy Island, Northumberland 13 May; Scottish Borders 10 June; Northern Ireland 8 July. Info: http://www.mytimesplus.co.uk/travel/uk/1867/times-walks.
www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk