Distance: 8.9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk in the Peak District from Hope Railway Station along the famous Great Ridge via Lose Hill, Hollins Cross and Mam Tor. Then along Rushup Edge and down to Edale where the Pennine Way begins.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Possibly the Most Famous Ridge Walk in the Peak District?

Stretching from Lose Hill in the east to Mam Tor in the west, when many people envisage the Peak District the only national park in the Midlands, it is views from the Great Ridge that they see.

Three kilometres long the Great Ridge is between four hundred and five hundred metres above sea level for most of its course. Comparable to the tallest part of Worcestershire’s Malvern Hills. It is also relatively level for the majority of its course, especially beyond Hollins Cross its lowest point, gently curving upwards towards Mam Tor which at 517 metres above sea level is its highest point. This quality, its location above the tourist honeypots of Hope, Castleton and Edale, and the commanding views from the top have made the Great Ridge popular with generations of leisure trippers to the Peak District. It has become such a defining part of the region’s perception that it even featured as a driving location in the racing video game Forza Horizon 4.

Diminutive in stature compared to the gritstone plateaus like Kinder Scout and Bleaklow to its north, and indeed Rushup Edge, a ridge running north west from just above Mam Tor, separated from it by a narrow pass, the Great Ridge is nevertheless an important boundary. It forms part of the divide between the limestone landscape of the southern White Peak, and the peaty gritstone moorland of the northern Dark Peak. While taller than most of the hills in the White Peak the Great Ridge with its grassy flanks and smatterings of woodland is more akin to the lower, knotted, landscape of the White Peak, than the dark, hulking moorlands of the Dark Peak.

The Great Ridge, like it’s mightier northern neighbours Rushup Edge, Kinder Scout and Bleaklow, also stands very close to the watershed separating the River Derwent’s catchment area, which flows south down most of Derbyshire to the Trent, and the catchment area of the River Goyt which runs west converging with the River Mersey. 

Perhaps this boundary status is the reason why an ancient culture thousands of years ago built a hillfort on Mam Tor? Surveilling all those attempting to traverse the Great Ridge and the passes surrounding it. 

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 from Hope to Edale, along the famous Great Ridge via Lose Hill, Hollins Cross and Mam Tor. Then along Rushup Edge and down to Edale begins from Hope Railway Station on the Sheffield to Manchester railway line.

Exit the station via the side next to the car park where trains run west towards Manchester.

Once on the car park, walk straight ahead down the road leading away from the station car park.

Soon you reach the busy A6187. Here turn right and begin walking towards the village of Hope.

Keep walking until you reach the village of Hope.

Once inside the village’s bounds keep walking until you reach the wall of Hope parish church’s graveyard.

Upon reaching the church turn right, following the main road through the village past the Old Hall pub.

Immediately after the pub on the right runs Edale Road. Turn right and follow it passing a cafe on your right.

Continue along the road approaching the northern end of Hope village.

Presently on your left there is a footpath waymark pointing over a stile and along a short snicket. Take this path on your left.

At the top of the snicket there is a gate which you walk through, then turn right through another gate.

Follow the path straight ahead walking through a series of gates.

Cross a field, with Lose Hill and the eastern end of the Great Ridge straight ahead of you, and pass through another gate.

Here the path runs to the left across a green painted bridge across a siding for the freight trains that service the Hope Valley limestone quarry and cement works.

Having crossed the bridge head through a gate and follow the path across a scrap of grass to a further gate leading out onto a driveway.

Once on the driveway walk straight ahead following the path past a house and garage painted white.

Follow the path beyond the house and through a gate.

Head uphill following a narrow well worn path.

Pass through a gate at the top of the path, then straight ahead through another out into a field.

Walk straight ahead across the field and through another gate, continuing along the path across another field on the far side of the gate.

Presently at the top of the field amidst some trees marking a fenceline you reach a wooden stile which you cross.

On the far side of the stile turn left, walking straight across the field.

Here this is another stile, at the end of a short wooden boardwalk, which you cross.

Having crossed this stile, turn right heading uphill following the line of a drystone wall for quite some distance.

Soon you reach a metal waymarking sign which points to the right heading uphill following another drystone wall.

Presently you come to a wooden gate which you pass through. Almost immediately on the other side on the left there is a gate leading into a stand of fur trees.

Walk straight ahead following the path through the fur trees.

As you walk the path curves to the right running uphill, up a set of steps.

Soon you come to a gate leading out onto open hillside.

Through the gate follow the well worn path to the right straight uphill towards the summit of Lose Hill.

There are great views to the left up the line of the Great Ridge across the western end of the Hope Valley towards Mam Tor.

Presently you reach a gate which leads to the path which runs upwards towards the very top of Lose Hill.

Upon reaching the summit, which was busy with people walking the Great Ridge turn left and begin following the very well trod path along the Great Ridge towards Mam Tor.

It is pretty easy to follow the path enabling you to take in the views rather than being too concerned about navigating.

One trickier stage is a set of rough stone steps down towards Hollins Cross. This is the lowest point of the Great Ridge, but still more than four hundred metres above sea level.

Beyond Hollins Cross continue straight ahead along the path, some of which was recently resurfaced with old mill sets quarried generations ago on the Peak District, towards Mam Tor.

Upon reaching Mam Tor having taken in the views from the summit to reach Edale continue walking straight ahead.

Soon you reach a set of stone steps running down towards the road which runs across the pass dividing the Great Ridge from Rushup Edge.

Having reached the road, taking care because it can be quite busy, turn right and cross the road making for a gate set in a drystone wall amidst some trees.

Once through the gate follow a well worn path uphill.

At the top of the hill you are now on Rushup Edge. Here keep on walking to the left and follow a well worn footpath, which unusually has a parallel bridleway along the top.

Rushup Edge’s highest point Lords Seat, at five hundred and fifty metres above sea level is actually significantly taller than Mam Tor. There are great views across both the White and Dark Peak, as well as straight ahead down to Chapel-en-le-Frith as you walk.

Presently having left the edge, you reach a gate and having passed through it continue following the well worn track across moorland.

Continue walking straight ahead along the track for some distance.

Presently you reach a point where the track forks.

Here take the fork running to the right, down towards the Edale valley.

Follow this wide, well trodden bridleway for quite some distance descending towards Barber Booth, a hamlet on the valley’s floor.   

Presently, almost at the bottom of the valley, you cross a cattle grid. Beyond the cattle grid there is a footpath off to the left.

Follow this path downhill towards a gate leading into a meadow. Once in the meadow continue heading to the left along the side of the field.

Continue for quite some distance until you reach a stile on your left.

Having crossed the stile follow the path straight ahead.

Upon reaching a concrete breezeblock wall, which you pass to the right there is another stile which you cross.

On the far side of the stile continue straight ahead until you reach another stile on the left which you cross.

Once over the stile turn right, and follow a waymarking sign pointing down a footpath to the right.

Soon you reach a stile which you cross. On the far side continue walking straight ahead downhill approaching a line of trees.

When you reach the trees there is a stile leading out onto a lane. Once on the lane turn right.

Follow the lane through woodland beside the River Noe until soon you reach a junction.

Here turn left walking across a bridge over the River Noe and into Barber Booth.

In the centre of the village to the right there is a track running up a slight slope past houses.

Soon on the left, having passed the houses there is another narrower track. Turn left and walk along it.

You cross over the Hope Valley Manchester to Sheffield Railway Line which passes through Edale.

On the far side there is a gate to the right leading onto a footpath which you head through.

Follow the path which runs more or less in parallel with the railway, for some distance through a series of fields. The gates are always to the right, at the bottom of the field near the railway line. Though the path is fairly well worn and easy to follow.

Presently the path leads out onto a track next to a bridge over the railway line.

Here, turn right and cross the bridge.

Beyond the bridge walk along the track for a short distance.  

At a curve in the track there is a path running straight ahead along the line of a fence next to the railway on your left.

After some distance the path runs to the left into woodland.

Follow the path through the trees a short distance until you come out into a service area for the railway.

Walk straight ahead across this service area approaching Edale Railway Station and the end of the walk.

You come out onto a road approaching the station, and pass the public car park for passengers.

Trains towards Manchester can be accessed through a gate in this car park. 

While Sheffield services can be reached through an underpass a little further along, as can Hope village, notable for being the place where the Pennine Way begins.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing (September 2024) Hope’s railway station was served by hourly trains throughout the day running both west towards Manchester via Chinley, New Mills, Hazel Grove and Stockport (Stockport as well as Manchester is served by many national services along the West Coast Mainline), and to Sheffield, via Hope, Bamford, Grindleford and Dore and Totley Stations. There were also numerous buses, some more frequent that others, which run to destinations across the Peak District (like Bakewell, Eyam, Tidswells Castleton, Hope) and further afield to Sheffield, Holmfirth and Glossop.