dividing line. The southern portion of the White Peak is shared between the counties of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, the boundary flowing with the twists and turns of the beautiful River Dove. The Rivers Dove, Manifold and Hamps are born in the west upon Staffordshire Moorlands gritstone draining from Axe Edge and Morridge. The Hamps takes summer leave on reaching the limestone. Sinking underground and bypassing the valley junction with the Manifold it careers by some secret under-hill course to emerge in the grounds of Ilam Hall. The Manifold, which too has a similar fear of summer sunshine between Wettonmill and Ilam, runs through delightful countryside below Flash and Longnor and is particularly enchanting along the sinuous course of the old railway trackbed Manifold Trail, with Ecton Hill, Wettonmill and Thor’s Cave the primary scenic moments.
The Dove captivates in all its dimensions from the excitement of Washgate and the Dowel Dale hills, by Pilsbury and Hartington and into the limestone gorge of Beresford and Wolfscote Dales, excitedly weaving through the wooded depths of Dove Dale to Thorpe. By Wetton and Alstonefield and eastwards from the High Peak and Tissington Trails the walks in this guide explore the beauties of the high rolling plateau and the seclusion of the side dales. They deliberate upon the historic secrets of Minninglow and Roystone Grange, Harborough Rocks and Brassington, Tissington and Ashbourne.
Hartington Hall youth hostel, the ‘bee’s knees’ in terms of modern YHA accommodation (Walk 17)
What to Take
Only joy and good cheer can flow from carrying and wearing proper modern outdoor gear. Patronise dedicated outdoor shops to get the best advice. It does pay dividends. Your custom is important to them and you are likely to get one-to-one treatment and years of value from your purchases.
Into a light daypack stow some measure of weather-protective clothing. This will come to your rescue should the elements threaten to conspire by wind, rain or intense sun to spoil your outdoor adventure. (The summer of 2008 when this guide was being researched was extraordinarily wet and the author was grateful for the latest generation of waterproof trousers, enabling him to laugh in the rain!) Take along also a modest snack and a drink, which if nothing else will give you added cause to stop and soak in your surroundings all the more appreciatively. One cannot over-emphasise the value of wearing comfortable boots and woolly socks. They are your point of hard contact and the basis of your walk – happiness turning to misery on a sixpence if you get it wrong.
Even with this guide in your pocket, make a point of obtaining the relevant Ordnance Survey or Harvey map to get the bigger picture and deduce finer detail. Another piece of kit you should automatically pop into your daypack is a compass to confirm your direction of travel. Make a point of practising orientating it with the grid lines on the map to fix positions. Such things as a torch and a small first aid pack will come to your rescue should you stumble, and sun cream is important when the sun does shine, combined with a suitably wide-brimmed hat. As a bonus have a camera handy to record the visual pleasures and surprising incidents along the way (and send any you are proud of to www.markrichards.info to share with fellow walkers).
Local Services and Transport
The White Peak area is geared to the visitor and, in particular, the outdoor enthusiast, whether travelling by bike or boot. There is a good spread of tearooms and pubs, the competition ensuring the standard is universally high, and plenty of overnight accommodation. The author sampled two youth hostels (Hartington and Youlgrave) and two campsites (Birchover and Blackwell) and can heartily recommend the service provided.
In support of residents (and a bonus for the visitor) there remains a good network of bus services routed through the core villages and towns which can efficiently play into walk planning. This guide chooses to focus on circular walks, but if you leave the car behind and plan ahead, there is great scope for fascinating cross-country expeditions with the bus journeys themselves becoming a real part of the scenic pleasure. Consult the National Park website – www.peakdistrict.org – where you can also download the Peak District Bus Timetable (published in March and October) and Peak Connections guides.
Using This Guide
Even for those comparatively new to venturing into the green yonder, the walks in this guide should be logical to follow and introduce only relatively small bite-size chunks of countryside. The routes range between 3 and 10 miles long. Invariably there is scope to extend or, on occasion, shorten, but they are designed to be natural, fulfilling half-day excursions.
The 30 walks in this volume are, from tip to toe, a sweet and savoury selection. They are consistently well marked and signposted to the eternal credit of the Park Authority and particularly the Ranger Service, which forms a valuable source of information and advice for visitors and residents alike.
The guide’s vignette extracts from the Ordnance Survey maps are included to give readers a feel for the overall course of each walk, but they are no substitute for carrying and frequently referring to the relevant OS Explorer map – OL24 covers this volume.
Beacon at the corner of the Mermaid car park, set ablaze by the setting sun (Walk 2)
The aim of this guide is to help you structure your exploration of the White Peak. Once into the swing of White Peak wandering you will start to see your own logical pattern and adapt the walks to suit your own objectives and this is as it should be. There are also converted railway trackbed trails (for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders) and several specifically waymarked trans-Park trails which, with the help of public transport, may lead you to construct elongated routes of your own – linking A with B to see for yourself!
THE WALKS
WALK 1
Dove Head and Washgate
| Start/Finish | Flash |
| Distance | 8km (5 miles) |
| Time | 3¾ hrs |
| Terrain | Hilly, with rough paths and tracks and some damp, streaminundated sections |
| Refreshments | Flash Bar Shores Tearoom and adjacent Travellers Rest and the New Inn in Flash |
| Parking | (GR 025673) Close to New Inn and beside water troughs space for couple of cars in middle of Flash |
The civil parish of Quarnford is centred upon the community of Flash, the highest village in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The sign at the New Inn claims the status of highest village pub in the British Isles at 1518ft (463m). The walk strolls over Wolf Edge and steps off the high gritstone slope of Axe Edge to discover the secret wilds of the youthful Dove. As for Walk 13, the focus of this route is beautiful Washgate Bridge, from where it climbs back over Colshaw to inspect the first ‘fold’ of the stripling Manifold.
Walk west from the New Inn passing the decaying Wesleyan chapel, an imposing tall square hall of a building with first floor steps and an early Victorian reworking of a late 18th-century chapel. It proclaims ‘The Lord loveth the gates of Zion’. The promised land in our case lies over the hill, so let’s be gone. Pass up by the old smithy and bear right up the track. Keep left and a weather eye out for a nippy dog. (If you see it, don’t turn your back on it but walk backwards through the gate.)
Ignore an inviting lane leading on to a grand prospect towards Shutlingsloe, and instead heed the footpath sign directing right up the field. This path leads through wall-stiles back into the lane further on with the rocks of Wolf Edge on the horizon ahead. Negotiating muddy patches, clamber over a fence-stile
