Another lovely late October day so we decided to head down towards Hathersage close to where we were last week and walk Stanage Edge. So after another drive through Glossop and over the Sanke pass we arrived at Hatherseage itself. We had a walk starting for the villlage but as it was going to be going dark around 4.30 we decided to find a closer starting point to the Edge. A look at the OS map found a carparking area near to the southern End and we were lucky to get the last parking spot.
We start off following up a broad path the took us up through bracken almost to the top and just a little scramble and were were there.
Stanage is certainly the most dramatic Edge we have walked, it is on the edge of Hathersage Moor which stretchs East toward towards Sheffield, however the best views are to the west where we could look down across the Hope valley towards Castleton and clearly see Mam Tor and the great ridge stretching to Lose Hill, with its companion Win Hill also is sight.
Looking South West we could see down the Derwent valley overlooked by Froggat Edge.
Although the day was glorious, the wind on the top was very strong, but it wasnt a chilling wind fortunately. We set off along the edge, which is very popular with rock climbers, every buttress seemed to be alive with them. The cliffs of edge I assume are Millstone grit although there were certainly traces of sandstone on the cliff top. The way was for a large part over boulders as well as grass between them, also very fine sand which along with the pools of water reminded me of walking along a rocky seashore.
We continued to walk along. for the most part the scenery on the top was pretty similar, climbers, gaps between the rock, moorland to the east,, these are grouse moors and I did brief see one grouse in the distance. After a while more views opened up, KinderScout was unmistakable, also other hills to the north of it which i do not know.
We finally reached a trig point and dropping back from the edge found a sheltered spot to stop and eat our snack.
After the break we then started to retrace our steps, part of the way along we stopped at a place called Robin Hood's cave, we had passed it on the way out but this time I decided to climb down and have a close look. It is a ledge with a number of very rounded hemispheres in the rock, how these are formed I dont know, maybe it is the wind which blows the dust around and over many years shapes them, there is also a gap in the stone where after climbing down came to the back of a small circular cave presumeably formed the same way. Going through this you come out onto a little balcony overlooking the rock face. Cave with a balcony? certainly sir.
Returning to the edge we arrived back at the point where we had climbed onto the edge and decided to continue up to Cowley rocks at the end of the edge. On reaching these rocks I was quite amused to find another trig point which had been afixed to a large rock.
From these rocks we could see over to Higger Tor which we did last week and it was only a fairly short walk from where we were. We realised these were the rocks that we could see last week.
We now decided that instead of walking back along the edge we would descend here, which we did with a bit of scrambling and then followed a path through the bracken which lead to the main park from the carpark.
Oh and we actually some of the famed discarded millstones, they were so well grouped that if I were a cynic I would say that they had been deliberately placed there.
All told we walked between 5 and a half and six miles in the surprisingly fast, for us, 3 and a half hours.
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