When I planned the route of my walk from Sheffield to Manchester I had it in mind that the second day would be the hardest in terms of terrain, though slightly shorter in terms of distance than the other days.
Having spent the night in the Old Hall Hotel in Hope overlooking the village’s graveyard, I began walking on a cold, but quite sunny morning.
The route I had planned, involved an initial steep ascent, and then a comparatively easy walk along the ridge that runs above Hope and Castleton from Ward’s Piece, via Mam Tor to the Lord’s Seat and then steadily downwards.
On the way up I got some great views of Hope’s cement works. An unusual industrial intrusion into the Peak District National Park and a really very fine example of “rural modernism”.
Talking to the hotel manager at the Old Hall in Hope where I had been staying he said that the route I had chosen was a good one, because “once you’re on top of that ridge there’s a paved path a bit like a road… It’s boring as anything, but it gets you places quick”. He wasn’t wrong about that…
Views were quite spectacular though.
Eventually I reached Mam Tor. I was far from the only person making the most of the fine spring sunshine there.
A little further on from Mam Tor, approaching the (slightly taller) Lord’s Seat the crowds vanished.
After the Lord’s Seat the narrow ridge with valleys on both sides gave way to moorland.
I stopped for lunch just before heading onto the Pennine Bridleway. Which is the Pennine Way’s lesser known, more meandering, equine cousin.
By now, the small towns of north west Derbyshire, like Chapel-en-le-Frith were visible in the distance.
As could be expected the Pennine Bridleway provided pretty monotonous, but a great way of covering ground quickly.
That said some of the scenary was pretty spectacular.
Not least when after a steep climb the track suddenly emerged opposite Kinder Scout.
A little further on and on a downwards descent I got my first sight of Manchester. Sprawling in the distance, very much in some regards the “shock city” that it was in Engel’s day.
Then it was on to lower paths winding along the Sett Valley past Hayfield, and onto Thornsett just up from New Mills.
Like Sheffield, High Peak the district of Derbyshire where Hayfield, Thornsett and New Mills are located is very much border country. Like Sheffield, which as a Yorkshire city is firmly in the north, High Peak whilst nominally midlands, has many firmly northern characteristics.
Having finished walking for the day, I am left where I am staying with a view of Kinder Scout, where I will be going tomorrow to retrace the route of the Mass Trespass in 1932. Then on Monday I will continue onto Manchester via the canal network.
