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