Distance: 11 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk from Bamford to Upper Padley in the Derbyshire Peak District along the gritstone edges, including Stanage Edge and Burbage Edge marking the boundary between Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.

The Story

Route Notes

Getting Back

Millstone Grit

Millstone grit is a kind of sandstone. It is the predominant rock type in the north of the Peak District, and protrudes down the eastern and western flanks of the National Park. It is a darker coarser type of rock than the bands of limestone which lie north and south of the Pennine’s millstone grit layers.

This Pennine gritstone was laid down during the Carboniferous period’s late (upper) Paleozoic era. At that time the area which is now the Dark Peak, so called for the colour of the peat and the dark underlying rock and shale, was covered by a great river delta which laid down the bands of sediment which were pressed over the course of hundreds of millions of years into millstone grit.

Amongst the most striking expressions of millstone grit in the Peak District’s landscape are the edges, low cliffs, carved by ice age glaciers, running along the eastern and western sides of the National Park. The western one primarily in Cheshire runs for around 30 miles from Disley down to Mow Cop just north of Kidsgrove, and is celebrated by the Gritstone Trail. The eastern edges are far shorter, the rock’s most famous striking expression between Reever Low beside the A57 and Baslow is walkable in a day. However, compared to the Peak District’s western flank, they tend to be far more prominent with more of the rock on display.

The edges on the eastern side of the Peak District have drawn film and TV makers due to their dramatic appearance and the views commanded from their summits. Chief amongst them the makers of the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice and adaptations of the works of the Bronte sisters. It is thought that Chatsworth House is the likely model for Mr. Darcy’s vast northern estate, while the Bronte sisters had an uncle who managed the waterpowered cotton mill in Bamford during the 1840s. But it is not just British period drama makers who are drawn to the edges. Bamford has become a place of pilgrimage for Chinese visitors to the UK, who walk the short distance up to Bamford Edge, and position themselves with Laybower Reservoir in the background, to create a much aped photograph for sharing on the Chinese equivalent of Instagram.

North of the eastern and western edges millstone grit provides the basis for the Peak District’s high moors including Kinder Scout and Bleaklow, two of the region’s small number of mountains, as well as the not quite mountainous Black Hill, which marks Derbyshire’s northern boundary with West Yorkshire. From there the gritstone extends northwards into West Yorkshire encompassing Marsden in the Colne Valley right at the top of the Peak District region.

But why is it called millstone grit? The name comes unsurprisingly from the fact that the stone used to be used for millstones. Which doubtless led to pretty gritty bread. Indeed beneath Stanage Edge, just above Bamford and Hathersage in the eastern Hope Valley, there lies a stack of carved millstones which due to imperfects or the cessation of the trade, were left where they were carved, newly hewn from a quarry on the edge. These millstones have long been a symbol of the Peak District National Park even featuring on the Park Authority’s logo.

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 Bamford to Upper Padley begins from Bamford Railway Station, which also has a little bus interchange just beneath it.

Upon arriving head up to the main road and turn right.

Walk along the pavement approaching Bamford village. As you walk Bamford Edge looms above you.

At the centre of the village there is a little square home to sculptures erected at various different times. Here cross the square and head to the right up a little lane which slowly climbs to the edge of the village.

Soon you reach a junction where you walk straight ahead up a steep narrow road. The road runs very steeply up through the trees. At the time of writing it was closed to all traffic apart from pedestrians until at least April 2026, but from a walkers perspective that is a good thing.

Presently after a steep climb you arrive on a country lane, albeit a busy one at the weekends, high up above Bamford and the Hope Valley near the gritstone edges.

Turn right and walk a very short distance, before crossing the road to the left and heading out onto moorland. Here pick-up a path running to the right.

Soon you reach an old quarry where you steadily ascend up onto a moorland plateau. To the right you get your first glimpse of Stanage Edge. At the top follow an indistinct track out onto the moorland.

Keep walking across the moorland until you reach a substantial path. Once on this path turn right and follow it heading towards Stanage Edge.

Presently you pick up a path which runs along the base of the edge. Continue along this path heading towards the hamlet of Moscar Lodge beside the A57.

Before you reach the road Stanage Edge falls away and you come to a large stone called the Boundary Stone.

Upon reaching the boundary stone pick up a path running to the right, towards the northern end of Stanage Edge.

Upon reaching the edge there is a wide well worn path running straight along the top of the edge.

Follow this path, which more or less parallels the boundary between Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, the Midlands and Northern England, along the top of Stanage Edge.

Continue along the path walking along the top of the spectacular gritstone Stanage Edge, with excellent views both across the moorlands above Sheffield and out into the heart of the Peak District. 

After quite some distance you reach the craggy southern edge of Stanage Edge. Here turn left and follow a flagstone path, and then a wide well worn track down to a car park above the impressive glacial Burbage Valley. Here you cross the Burbage Bridge, and head back onto the moors.

Follow a track heading to the left and southwards until you reach Burbage’s edge.

Continue along the path along the top of Burbage’s edge. As you walk there are views to the right towards the Carl Wark hillfort site high up on a little gritstone promontory.

Keep on along the path along the top of the edge until you are stood at the end of the gritstone ridge high above the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate.

Here descend down a track to the side of the A6187 which runs between the Hope Valley and Sheffield here cross the road and head into the trees on the far side of the road which are part of the Longshaw Estate.

there is a bus stop on the right here, with frequent buses through the day east across the moors to Sheffield, and west down into the villages of the Hope Valley many of which have railway stations on the Manchester – Sheffield line, making it possible to finish the walk at this point rather than continuing to Upper Padley and Grindleford railway station.

Carry on the path a short distance until you join another wider track here turn right until you join another paved track high above the Burbage Brook where you turn left. 

Follow the path for a short distance down some stone sets 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 September 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.