Distance: 4.8miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk from Hathersage village up onto Hathersage Moor to the dramatically sited and enigmatic Carl Wark Iron Age hillfort. Return leg to Grindleford Railway Station via Padley Gorge.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

“Devil’s Fort” on Hathersage Moor

High up on Hathersage Moor around 370 metres above sea level lies the enigmatic Carl Wark stone reinforced ramparts.

Historically within Derbyshire, but now situated in the Sheffield City Council area in South Yorkshire, Carl Wark has an Old Norse name (meaning “The Old Man’s Fort” or “The Devil’s Fort” translations vary, depending on whom “Carl” is taken to refer to) but is far, far older.

It is generally accepted that it is a prehistoric hillfort, constructed around a naturally formed chunk of gristone high up on the moors. It has been suggested that the structure could date as far back as the Neolithic era, and perhaps it was occupied by people for some purpose that far back, but the most recent archeological dig at the site found that the stone ramparts had been assembled in the 5th or 6th Century BCE, which was during the Iron Age.

Like many of the so-called “hillforts” dotted across the region Carl Wark’s precise purpose is disputed. Experts and popular consensus alike have assumed that it had either a defensive purpose or was a projection of power by a local ruler, however, it is far from clear cut that it actually possessed a military purpose.

There are no signs that it was occupied for any significant length of time, whether as a fortified settlement, garrisoned warriors, or even just the Iron Age equivalent of civil servants or state functionaries… If such things existed. It would also not have been an especially sensible place to attempt to hold for anytime during a siege, there being no running water inside the enclosed area.

This said, it is entirely possible that the “hillfort” did have a military purpose. To this day it stands near a boundary, the one between Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, within close range of the A6187, which is one of the principal roads from Sheffield out into the Peak District and across to Greater Manchester and North Western England. No doubt the Iron Age inhabitants of contemporary northern Derbyshire southern Yorkshire also used the pass now traversed by the A6187 as means of getting to and from the Peak District.

Or did it perhaps have an agricultural, trading or ceremonial use in the years after its Iron Age construction? Such uses have been suggested for other Iron Age sites such as British Camp in the south western Midlands. The simple answer is that we’ll never know… Carl Wark is an excellent place to walk up to and ponder, though.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk up to the Carl Wark hillfort begins from Hathersage Railway Station.

In a Walk Midlands first, whilst the route starts and ends in the Midlands, the central section including Carl Wark itself, sits just outside the region in Yorkshire.

Upon exiting Hathersage Station, turn left walking down past houses to the road running around the centre of the village to the east.

On reaching the road turn right and walk up a slight hill as if making for the centre of Hathersage for a very short distance.

You soon reach a narrower road running off towards the edge of the village on your right.

Turn right here and follow the road as it runs uphill past houses for a short distance.

Soon you reach a footpath sign running off to the right.

Turn right and follow this path.

Presently it leads out into a meadow. Here turn left and walk uphill towards a fence leading out onto a road opposite some houses at the top.

Once on the road side turn left and walk downhill a very short distance.

On the far side of the road running off to the right there is a track running uphill into woodland.

Cross over the road and walk up this track. It runs up through the hills with occasional driveways leading off it down to houses for quite some distance.

Presently you reach a white painted house. Just beyond the house the track curves to the left and turns into more of a green lane style footpath, narrowing steadily.

Continue walking along the path passing through a gate and heading up a short flight of wooden steps onto a bank.

Follow the path as it runs through the trees heading steadily uphill and off to the right.

After some distance you emerge out of the trees and approach a gate leading out onto open countryside.

Immediately after the gate turn left and climb up a short slope leading up onto a bank by a drystone wall.

At the top of the bank turn right and follow the drystone wall for some distance.

You reach a surfaced track which you follow a little way.

It leads up to a modernised farmhouse now serving as someone’s country residence. The right of way here runs across their property and they have installed an electric gate for the use of walkers.

Once through the gate walk up the drive heading to the right. On the far side, just behind a little stone outbuilding there is a gate leading out onto open moorland.

Pass through this gate and begin walking along the track across the moor.

After just a short distance there is a wooden post pointing left and right. Here take the right and arm and keep following the path across the moor.

Walk straight along the path passing through an old stone gateway along the way. On the other side of the gateposts walk straight up the grassy hill approaching a stile out onto the road.

By now, as the photos accompanying this walk attest, the weather conditions had turned absolutely atrocious. Probably the worst weather conditions a Walk Midlands walk has ever been developed under.

On reaching the side of the road turn left, walking steadily uphill.

Presently after several minutes walking there is a footpath sign pointing off the road up a bank to the right, leading out onto moorland. As the faded writing on the sign attests you have now left Derbyshire for the City of Sheffield Council area.

Up out onto the moorland keep on walking straight. This area is known as Hathersage Moor, sitting as it does high above the village of Hathersage.

Presently off to the left a long stone enclosure comes into view. This large structure is Hathersage Sheepfold.

Having reached the northern wall of the sheepfold, keep walking straight to the left beyond it.

After passing the sheep pen follow one of the tracks leading off to the left. This is open access land, so whilst there are footpaths marked on Ordnance Survey, you can legally walk anywhere provided you take due care, and walkers clearly take full advantage of this freedom. Just watch your step as the ground is waterlogged and treacherous.

By this time the rain was heavy and the mist so thick that I could not really see where I was going, so I just kept heading to the left. Looking at photographs taken in better weather and the contours on the map I suspect that as Carl Wark sits to the left and slightly to the south of the Hathersage Sheepfold that it is probably fairly easy to spot and plot a course towards.

Anyway, after several minutes walking Carl Wark loomed out of the mist.

On reaching the rocky outcrop there is a path heading upwards and across the site.

Or alternatively there is a footpath just prior to the foot of the rocky outcrop. Upon reach it turn left.

From this path it is possible to head to the right along track running across the base of the hillfort site.

Upon reaching Carl Wark the key thing is to navigate to the left, heading slightly north.

Presently just below the platform off to the left, a stone bridge and a clearly defined track comes into view.

Head across the moorland making for this point.

Upon reaching the bridge, cross over it, then head uphill along the track.

After a little way you come to a sturdy track comprising part of the Sheffield Country Walk.

Here turn right and follow the track as it runs downhill.

There are good views (on a clear day) back to Carl Wark on your right, and to old gritstone works in the hillside to your left.

Eventually having passed through a pair of gates, you reach the side of the busy A6187 running between the heart of the Peak District and Sheffield.

On the far side of the road there is a wooden gate leading down into woodland. It is marked with a National Trust sign for the Longshaw Estate.

Cross over the A6187 and head through the gate.

Walk down the path beyond for a short distance. Soon you reach another path, here turn right.

Follow the path for a short distance down through the trees. Soon it leads down some stone steps to a bridge across the Burbage Brook.

Having crossed the bridge turn left and follow the footpath alongside the Burbage Brook for a fair distance. You follow the river as it steadily widens for almost the entirety of the rest of the walk.

Presently after some distance you reach the car park for Padley Gorge, a significant and famously beautiful Peak District destination in its own right.

Here keep following the well worn path alongside the Burbage Brook, dodging and clambering over chunks of gristone, heading for the trees at the top of Padley Gorge.

Follow the path as it runs into the trees.

Keep walking straight following the path above Burbage Brook as it runs down through Padley Gorge for quite some distance.

Eventually you reach a fork in the path. Here take the arm which runs off to the right up some wooden steps cut into the hillside.

At the top of the steps turn left and begin walking downhill. At the bottom some buildings are visible through the trees.

Keep heading left, walking through a gate out onto an unpaved residential road.

Walk down this road as it runs downhill.

At the bottom turn left, passing the buildings of the former Padley Mill, now converted into dwellings.

Just past the former mill buildings turn right.

This brings you out onto the road bridge just in front of the Totley Tunnel which carries the Hope Valley Line out of Sheffield and into the Peak District. In front of you is the famous Grindleford Station Cafe, and Grindleford Station is off to your right.

Getting Back

From Grindleford Railway Station trains run more or less hourly throughout the day and into the night to Sheffield and Manchester (as of December 2022). From Sheffield and Manchester trains run south to many destinations in the Midlands. Buses can be caught from Hathersage, Bamford and Hope. For a bus to Sheffield or west further into the Peak it is advisable to conclude the walk early at the A6187 where the route passes a bus stop.