Distance: 4.9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

This walk in the limestone countryside of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire Peak District is between the villages of Hartington and Warslow via the River Dove and Ecton Hill site of 3,500 years of copper mining.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Staffordshire’s Hollow Hill

Ecton Hill in the Staffordshire Peak District is known as the “hollow hill”.

It stands 369 metres tall at its highest point, making it a prominent hill for the southern part of the white peak, rising high with a sheer cliff-like face above the Manifold Valley. In common with many other hills in this area riven by the Dove and Manifold Rivers, Ecton Hill comprises a short ridge with spectacular views in all directions.

The hill gets its nickname from the centuries of copper and lead mining which occurred beneath its surface. It is thought that a total of 100,000 tons of metal ore were extracted from beneath Ecton Hill over the course of 3,500 years of it being worked by miners. No wonder it is thought to be hollow.

Ecton’s first miners were in the bronze age making it potentially the first place in the British Isles where people are known to have extracted metal ores. One of only two places where it is definitely known that the metal ores were mined during the bronze era.

During the middle ages and early modern period sections of Ecton Hill were let by the wealthy and powerful Devonshire (Cavendish) family, who controlled the Peak District’s mineral wealth, building first Hardwick Hall and then Chatsworth House off the back of the wealth generated through the miner’s work. It was during this era that many of the shafts and adits that today pockmark the hillside were dug. It is thought that the Ecton Hill workings were the first in the UK where gunpowder was used to aid tunneling and extraction in the 1660s and 1670s.

Then in 1760 the Earl of Devonshire at the time, decided to kick out his tenant miners and undertake copper mining beneath Ecton Hill on his own account. At the time copper was a highly prized metal, critical to Britain’s national security and trading wealth, because both merchant shops and naval vessels had their wooden hulls partially clad in it, to ensure that they lasted longer, especially in tropical waters.

From 1760 the Devonshire’s poured capital grubbed from the rents, lead mining revenues, and other sources of income they scoured from workers across the Peak District into the Ecton Hill mines. A terraced trackway, a pre-steam form of railway hauled by ponies and horses, was run up the slope in the 1760s to read mine shafts dug into the summit of the hill and bring ores down to the Manifold valley floor.

As the century progressed work began to enable the sinking of the mines beneath Ecton Hill to ever deeper levels. A Boulton and Watt Watt steam engine, one of the first to be used in this way, was erected above the Clayton Mine in 1788 to serve not as a pump, but rather a winch, displacing horses which had traditionally performed this task, of moving ore and equipment out of the workings. The engine house still stands to this day, the steam engine having remained in service for over eighty years until 1870 when it was scrapped.

Developing the town of Buxton as a spa resort was another key commercial objective of the Devonshire family during the years in the 18th and 19th Centuries that the Ecton Hill mines were at their most productive. It is said that the town’s crescent was entirely paid for with revenues from the ores extracted by the workers at Ecton.

The presence of copper beneath Ecton Hill stimulated the expansion of metalworking industries in the nearby Churnet Valley, known as Staffordshire’s Rhineland. In the 19th Century the nearby presence of a supply of copper was one of the factors which encouraged the Thomas Bolton Copper Company to set up first in Oakamoor and then in Froghall, at the base of the Caldon Canal, making copper products. Their initial presence in the valley had been secured through purchasing the existing Cheadle Copper and Brass Works established in 1719. In the firm’s early years copper was brought down tramways to the Churnet Valley. In the late 1850s and early 1860s some of the first transatlantic cables were made by the company, opening up the possibility Ecton Hill copper was used for this project. The company continued throughout the 20th Century eventually closing in the 2000s. Though by then it had been more than one hundred years since copper had been mined at Ecton.

Problems pumping the mine meant that the lowest reaches of Ecton Hill’s Deep Ecton Mine were abandoned where they were below the level of the River Manifold in the 1790s. Work continued throughout all levels of the Clayton Mine until the 1850s when that too was abandoned below the level of the river meaning its lowest reaches were flooded. The upper levels of the mine were worked until the 1890s when all work stopped, bringing to a close 3,500 years of mining at Ecton Hill.

This did not entirely spell the end of the area’s industrial history. For a relatively brief period between 1904 and 1934 the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway ran past Ecton Hill’s steep western slope, following the course of the Manifold Valley. It primarily carried milk from farms along its route and tourists visiting the Manifold Valley and sites like Thor’s Cave, as well as Ecton Hill, which at 369 metres above sea level at its summit is one of the area’s tallest peaks. After the railway closed in 1934, in a pioneering move the trackbed was purchased by Staffordshire County Council, who had the foresight as far back as the 1930s to instate most of it as a mixed use path for cyclists, equestrians and walkers.

Today much of Ecton Hill is cared for by the National Trust alongside Dovedale as part of its White Peak estate. This includes the hill’s summit and steep sides, as well as the numerous relics of the area’s mining past including the deep shafts dotting the hillsides, former engine house and other surviving mine buildings, and the numerous spoil tips that litter the site. A study centre enables students and keen cavers alike, to head into the hollow hill, and explore the network of shafts and caverns left by thousands of years of mining.

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 in the White Peak from Hartington to Warslow, across the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire at the River Dove, and via Ecton Hill site of 3,500 years of copper mining, begins from the Hartington Square bus stop.

The 442 bus, at the time of writing in December 2024, ran between Ashbourne and Buxton, and back again, at roughly two hourly intervals, throughout the day from before 09:00 in the morning and just after 17:00 in the evening. This is the bus which calls at the Hartington Square bus stop.

Upon alighting at the Hartington Square stop turn right, crossing the road, as passing a short row of shops and the Charles Cotton Hotel, begin following the road out of the village heading south.

Continue along the road for a short distance.

Presently on the left there is a farm shop with a municipal toilet block next to it. Between the two structures there is a footpath running up a short flight of steps.

At the top of the steps head through a gate and begin following a wide, well worn path, which leads to the top of Wolfscote Dale on the River Dove.

Follow the path as it runs away from the village to the south.

Soon you reach a set of gates leading across a bridleway style track, which you cross, continuing downhill towards the River Dove.

Carry on along the path towards a stand of trees following occasional wooden waymarkers.

Upon reaching the trees to your right by the waters of the Dove there is an old stone building with a tall chimney. This is the old fishing house owned by Charles Cotton after whom Harington’s hotel is named. In the late 17th Century he was the first person to codify angling for sport rather than food.

Pass through a wooden gate set in a drystone wall and enter the woodland.

Follow the path through the trees.

Soon the path reaches the side of the River Dove and you keep on walking.

You cross a wooden bridge over the Dove to the right, crossing from Derbyshire into Staffordshire, from the eastern into the western Midlands.

Then carry on straight along the path as it runs through a spectacular narrow limestone dale.

Presently the dale opens out somewhat. Suddenly you come across a tarmac road which runs down more or less to the side of the River Dove.

Continue walking along the lane for quite some distance. It is pretty quiet, as it only leads to the River Dove and a small number of farms and houses, but still take care.

After some distance along the lane you reach a junction. Here a track continues running straight ahead, but you take the arm of the junction to the right, and carry on along the tarmac road.

Soon you come to a crossroads where the lane crosses a busier road. Carry on straight ahead across the road and carry on along the lane on the far side.

Just after entering the lane beyond the crossroads look out on the left for a footpath waymark leading through an old fashioned very narrow stone stile. Walking straight across the field beyond.

Upon reaching a fence you walk through a wooden gate, continuing along the field across the path beyond.

Approaching a farm you turn left, heading to the east of the property. Continuing walking, you pass through a gate with a stile next to it.

On the far side of this gate and stile head to the right making for another gate, beyond which is visible, the side of a barn constructed from a breezeblock type material.

Continue straight past the breezeblock constructed barn.

Soon you reach the entrance to a paddock like field.

Once in the field turn left walking across the field heading uphill towards the far corner. Ahead of you the ridge of Ecton Hill rises in the distance.

Presently you reach a gate which you pass through. Continue straight across the field following the faint line of a path across the grass.

Soon you reach a wooden gate set in the corner of the field which you pass through. On the far side of the gate continue straight ahead and to the left walking towards a copse.

At the copse, next to an impressive wooden fence, beside a gate, there is a stile out onto a path beside a short driveway leading to a main road.

Once on the main road, taking care, cross to the other side.

Then turn left, walking uphill along the road.

Look out on the right for a gate leading out into a field. Once in the field walk straight ahead across the relatively flat ground towards a small barn type structure with Ecton Hill beyond.

On the far side of the field you reach a gate next to the ruined barn.

Beyond the gate you are stood at the top of a grassy dale dotted with trees. A farm and a scattering of houses stand on the other side of the dale on the other side of Ecton Hill.

Continue walking down the side of the dale, heading slightly to the right.

Soon you reach the side of a ditch which you follow downhill.

Presently you cross the ditch, and continue downhill until you reach a point near the bottom of the dale. Here you pass through a gate and cross a bridge over a brook.

Continue along the path a short distance and through a gate up to a driveway. Then walk straight uphill along the driveway towards the lane that serves the farm and houses on the eastern side of Ecton Hill.

On reaching the lane turn left and walk a short distance until you reach a stile on the right out onto the side of Ecton Hill.

This part of Ecton Hill is open access land, but comes with a warning that there are numerous shafts and former copper working pits dotting the hillside so it is important to take care when traversing it.

Once over the stile walk straight up the very steep side of Ecton Hill, until arriving at the broken down remains of a dry stone wall near the top, behind which runs a footpath.

Upon reaching the footpath turn left, and walk a short distance, with spectacular views south down the Manifold Valley, until you reach a footpath waymark.

Having reached the footpath waymark, turn right, walking up a slight rise and approaching a gateway through a drystone wall.

Having reached the footpath waymark, turn right, walking up a slight rise and approaching a gateway through a drystone wall.

Through the gateway you stand near the top of the hill. The top of the hill is littered with little spoil heaps and pockmarked with shafts sunk by copper and lead miners in centuries past. While the Manifold Valley stretches to the left, into the distance to the south.

Here turn right, walking the final stretch towards the summit, which is marked by the bright white painted concrete of an old Ordnance Survey trig point.

At the summit, which has spectacular views across the southern white peak part of the Peak District, continue straight ahead, descending a path slightly to the right, down the northern face of the Ecton Hill ridge.

Continue to follow the path straight downhill in the direction of a little stone hut type building, which remarkably is the world’s oldest surviving structure which once held a steam winding engine. A Boulton and Watt engine having been installed there in 1788 to service the Clayton Mine whose shaft, now capped with concrete once extended below the building.

Soon you pass through a series of gates until you reach a sturdy wooden gate to the left which leads out beside the former engine house enclosure.

Having had a look at the former engine house and the Manifold Valley below, turn right, and begin following a curving path around and downhill.

Beyond the little power store building and amidst the trees continue following the path around to the left.

Presently you reach a gate which leads to a driveway running past the fantastical medieval looking property which Arthur Ratcliffe, MP for Leek in the 1930s constructed nearly 100 years ago.

Past the property turn right, and head down a steep driveway which runs down to the valley floor beside the River Manifold.

Once on the valley floor turn right and, taking care, follow the road around until you soon approach a stone bridge on the left across the River Manifold.

Turn left, crossing the Manifold Trail, former route of the Leek and Manifold Light Railway, and head over the bridge.

On the far side walk straight ahead looking out on the left for a waymark pointing up some steps through a gate out into a field.

Through the gate walk straight ahead along a well worn path.

Carry on through a gap in a hedgerow, then following a waymark, head into the field beyond.

Once in that field walk straight ahead approaching a a drystone wall with an old barn standing to the left.

Upon reaching the drystone wall head to the right, continuing to walk across the meadow.

Over the top of the wall village of Warslow, the ending point for this walk appears to the right.

Head through a waymarked gap in the stone wall in the corner of the field, then turn right now approaching the edge of Warslow.

Continue across the fields, passing through an old stone stile on the way, before passing through a little gate to reach the pavement of the road running along the southern edge of Warslow. There are impressive views behind you towards Ecton Hill to the south.

Here, turn left.

Soon on your right you see the main road running through the centre of the village.

Cross over the road here and walk along it approaching the village’s centre where a pub, The Greyhound Inn, the village’s main amenity, stands.  

Before reaching it on the left there is a road Quarter Lane which runs off towards the tower of St. Lawrence’s the village’s church.

Turn left here and walk a short distance towards the church where you find the village’s bus stop on the right.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing in December 2024 the 442 bus served Warslow throughout the day. Running between Ashbourne and Buxton. There were no buses on Sundays and bank holidays at all, with buses on the other days being roughly two hourly and the final services departing just after 17:30. From Ashbourne it is possible to get a frequent (half hourly at the time of writing in December 2024) bus to either Uttoxeter or Derby where there are trains. While Buxton to the north has services towards New Mills, Stockport and Manchester, which all have regional connections and rail services further afield. Both Ashbourne and Buxton are local bus hubs with services to the surrounding areas.