Buxton Circular via the Dragon's Back walk

Remote and quiet Upper Dove Valley, combining extreme natural beauty with the more esoteric beauty of industrial sites. Go over or past the very unique Dragon's Back

History

This is a list of previous times this walk has been done by the club (since Jan 2010). For more recent events (since April 2015), full details are shown.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sat, 03-Sep-22 Saturday Walk - Buxton Circular via the Dragon's Back [Buxton Trip] [New Walk] 20 cloudy
Length: 26.1 km (16.2 mi) [For a shorter walk see below Walk Options]
Ascent/Descent: 785m
Net Walking Time: 7 hours
Toughness: 8 out of 10
Meet outside Buxton Train Station at 09.00 hours (or join along the route).
This is an exciting expedition from the renowned spa town of Buxton into the remote and quiet Upper Dove Valley in the limestone area of the White Peak area, which combines extreme natural beauty with the somewhat more esoteric beauty of former or active industrial sites. Most certainly, one of a kind.
The outbound route leads to (and over) a string of magnificent hills with very fine views, including High Edge and Hitter Hill, but most impressive is the stretch along the iconic Chrome and Parkhouse Hills, former underwater atolls created about 350 million years ago, whose distinctive ridges appear as a line of pinnacles and resemble the 'plates' along the spine of a stegosaurus dinosaur. Which is why the hills are often referred to as the ‘Dragon’s Back’. So beautiful in fact that the return route passes them again, but from a different angle…
The more traditional dome-shaped High Wheeldon hill, with its surround views up and down Dove Dale, can be conquered on an optional extension just before lunch.
Another magnificent stretch in the afternoon leads up through a quiet and tight dry valley: Dowel Dale.
In between Buxton and the Dove Valley, similarly iconic (if not similarly beautiful) active or disused industrial sites are passed, from laboratories storing and investigating hazardous substances and explosives to assorted disused quarries now housing racecourses or serving as exhibition centres or climbing venues, while Harpur Hill Quarry also has the strange attraction of a toxic lake locally known as the ‘Blue Lagoon’ to show for.
Walk Options
Lots of options (see the webpage or the pdf for details), they basically boil down to the following:
Buses to shorten the route (check the route map for the location of the stops);
skirt Chrome Hill’s ridge;
go over Parkhouse Hill’s ridge (with sections of Grade I scrambling);
the extension over High Wheeldon mentioned above.
Lunch: The Packhorse Inn in Crowdecote (13.2 km/8.2 mi into the walk, food to 14.30) plus several options 20 minutes further along in Longnor.
Tea: Cobbles Coffee Shop in Longnor (11.5 km/7.1 mi from the end of the walk); The Parks Inn in Buxton (3.5 km/2.2 mi from the end of the walk); plus numerous options in Buxton’s Centre, either around the Market Place, or close to the Train Station.
For walk directions, maps, height profiles, photos and gpx/kml files click here . T=swc.386
  • Sat, 03-Sep-22

    8 walkers met at the station, with 10 more (plus a dog) joining en route from their accommodation, incl. 5 new arrivals. We kept mostly together to Chrome Hill, where 14 went over the top and 4 took the easier route to the side of it, only to end up on too high a path which ended up being steep to precipitous. So they actually took longer than the others.

    On to Parkhouse Hill, where 9 took the scrambly route over the top, 4 the easy route and 5 the medium one. This splitting into sub-grouos had the advantage that we arrived at the charming Packhorse Inn in manageable group sizes. Lunch or drinks in the garden for all. 2 of the scramblers had also walked the extension over High Wheeldon in the knowledge though that they would take the bus from Longnor in any case. As did two others.

    2 had sat out today's walk completely, 1 other had spent the morning in Tissington and joined us in Crowdicote though to walk on with a subgroup to Longnor to also take the bus from there, as far as is known. 1 surprise appearance was made at the pub by SW London's most prominent SWC walker, who did not quite have a private car and chauffeur but came by taxi, just for the lunch. She didn't walk, but I'll count her anyway, just for the effort made: 20 plus a dog

    Later on, 2 explored Dowel Cave, all 7 metres of it, tight and towards the end very tight, so just the man with headtorch went that far. It was cloudy all day but without rain, bar a few drops as we reached Buxton, where people started to peel off to go to their accommodation. Downtown at 17.30 for the through walkers.

    Birds: kestrels, swallows, ravens, a skylark, buzzards, goldfinches.