Distance: 14.7 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk primarily along the Pennine Way from Hadfield in Derbyshire at the foot of Longdendale up and over the Black Hill, West Yorkshire’s highest point, to Marsden just across the northern boundary of the Peak District National Park.

The Story

Route Notes

Getting Back

Peak District in Two Counties

Peat restoration work has altered the appearance of the Black Hill which stands half in Derbyshire, half in West Yorkshire, being notable for being the highest peak (it stands 582 metres above sea level) in the latter county.

For many years prior to the restoration the peat was breaking down, and in a kind of ecological turmoil, meaning that its summit did in fact appear black. Since its creation in 1965 the Black Hill has been a key point on the second stage of the Pennine Way. Its trig point being a welcome sight for people who had ascended the long, at times treacherous, running close to a cliff edge, path from Longdendale.   

Sitting right at the top of Derbyshire it is amongst the most northerly points in the English Midlands, and firmly in the hilly, peaty, northerly part of the Peak District National Park and cultural/geographic region. In many regards it is quite similar to the larger, slightly taller, Bleaklow and Kinder Scout plateaus to the south of Black Hill. In that it is steep sided, but fairly flat on top, and marked by the thick peat that sits on-top of its gritstone peak.

Prior to 1974 the Black Hill was not part of the Midlands (and indeed the inclusion of the northernmost part of Derbyshire, the High Peak, in the Midlands is contested). Rather it was in Cheshire (unless it is argued, as it has in previous ages that Cheshire is a Midlands county), having once been the county’s highest point. Then in 1974 when England’s local government was reorganised, much of the higher ground in Cheshire, that extended like a peninsula out from the county into Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, was given to Derbyshire. This means that the Black Hill has the unusual distinction of having been two county’s “tops”. These days Shining Tor, roughly midway between Macclesfield and Buxton, is Cheshire’s county top. A hill whose crest all forms part of the boundary between the county and Derbsyshire.

Route Notes

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 Hadfield in Derbyshire to Marsden in West Yorkshire, primarily along the Pennine Way via the Black Hill, West Yorkshire’s highest hill, begins from Hadfield Railway Station.

Upon arrival at Hadfield Station the presence of a rusting, “ghost” gantry or two in some scrubland, betrays that this little branch line was once a busy mainline between Manchester and Sheffield, and the first in the UK to be electrified.

Exit the station to the left and cross the forecourt.

This takes you onto the High Street through Hadfield. If you are a fan of dark, gross late 1990s British TV comedy, this road might look familiar. That is because Hadfield played the role of the bleak, surreal, and often outright disgusting Pennine town of Royston Vassey in the League of Gentlemen.

At the top of the high street turn right.

Walk down the road a short distance until on the left hand side you see the ramp leading up to the start of the Longdendale Trail stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail.

Once on the path turn left and start walking. You follow the trail for around seven or eight miles right the way up Longdendale to Woodhead.

Soon you are out of Hadfield and its outlying villages and hamlets. The Pennines rise increasingly tall on either side, while to your left the valley floor has been flooded to create the “Longdendale Chain” a network of seven reservoirs built between the 1830s and 1884 to supply Manchester and Salford with water.

After a couple of miles along the Longdendale Trail you reach the place where the Pennine Way descends from Bleaklow to reach the Longdendale Trail. Here you turn left, picking up the Pennine Way as it runs down to the side of the reservoirs.

You cross one of the dams that create the Longdendale chain of reservoirs, taking in spectacular views of the valley as you walk.

On the far side you head up to, and cross, the busy A628, one of the main routes between Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire these days. Then you head along a farm track towards the village of Crowden.    

Just before you reach Crowden you head left, following the Pennine Way, off road into the hills.

The Pennine Way is well trodden, and easy to follow. You use it to ascend the clough where the Crowden Brook runs at the bottom.

As you walk steadily climbing you pass the Black Tor, before clambering up a steep section beside Rakes Rocks, Oaken Clough and Laddow Rocks.

Having climbed to over 500 metres above sea level you walk along the Pennine Way following the line of a tall cliff edge high above the wide clough for some distance.

Presently the path reaches the side of the Great Crowden Brook (essentially the same river as the Crowden Brook but higher up in the moors), and you follow the stream for a bit, occasionally crossing it here and there.

Then you leave the side of the stream and begin walking up a flagstoned part of the Pennine Way across the peat towards the summit of the Black Hill.

Steadily ascending the hill you eventually reach the trig point at Black Hill’s summit, which stands right on the county boundary between Derbyshire and West Yorkshire (as well as being at 582 metres above sea level the highest point in West Yorkshire), and the boundary between the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Passing the trig point you start descending a steep, but really very straight, section of the Pennine Way across the moors.

You walk for quite some distance, steadily approaching the A635. Before you reach the main road you descend into, and then climb out of the deep Dean Clough.

Reaching the A635 at Wessenden Head, you cross the road, and follow a narrow but distinct path across the moor towards the side of Wessenden Head Reservoir.

Beside the reservoir you return to the Pennine Way, and pick up a track used by workers servicing the reservoir chain which cascades from Wessenden Head all the way to Marsden.

You steadily descend down the valley following this track, through what is the most northerly part of the Peak District National Park.

Part way on the descent to Marsden you leave the Pennine Way which heads to the west out across the moors, while the track that you are following widens.

Nearing the edge of Marsden, at the dam that contains the final reservoir in the Wessenden chain you head left down a long flight of stone steps.

Then follow the road at the bottom around past the vast, impressive, and also highly creepy, remains of a well preserved former textile mill, standing derelict on the edge of the town.

Once in Marsden you head to the station via the top of the town’s high street. The River Colne, which gives the area Marsden is in, the Colne Valley, runs through the centre, which is notable for its Mechanics Institute with a distinctive, highly unusual, deeply Victorian, raspberry ripple, red and cream coloured wooden town on its roof. Marsden lies on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, just beyond the Standedge Tunnel, the longest and deepest on the UK’s canal network. It reopened in May 2001 having been closed since 1943. It is worth going along to have a look, as it lies less than a mile from Marsden along the towpath. 

Getting Back

At the time of writing in February 2025 Marsden was served by hourly trains throughout the day running east towards nearby Huddersfield and further afield to Sheffield. As well as west towards Manchester via Stalybridge. Relatively frequent buses served Oldham and Huddersfield, with less frequent buses run by South Pennine Community Transport serving destinations like Holmfirth, and other outlying towns and villages.