Distance: 9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: easy

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

Walk along the Manifold Way, following the River Hamps and River Manifold limestone gorges in the Staffordshire Peak District, from Waterhouses to Thor’s Cave.

The Story

Route Notes

Getting Back

Divinely Inspired? Maybe Not

Situated high above the Manifold Valley in the Staffordshire Peak District, roughly midway between the villages of Wetton and Grindon, the name of Thor’s Cave conjures up images of a thundery Norse deity.

It is certainly an impressively sited cave standing 265 metres above sea level at the top of the gorge. Its dark maw visible through around 270 degrees, whether high up on the Grindon side of the Manifold Valley, or walking or cycling along the popular Manifold Way beside the River Manifold at its base.

Thor’s Cave is a fissure in the limestone that comprises this part of the Peak District, known as the “White Peak” to differentiate it from the more northerly “Dark Peak” which consists of gritstone and peat. Worried away by millennia of attrition from rain and ice the cave gradually formed, extending to its current depth and diameter.

The origins of the name Thor’s Cave are likely far more prosaic than it being a remnant of Early Medieval paganism. A tor is a large rocky outcrop, standing alone and protruding from another hilltop, like the tors on Dartmoor, or the many of rocky outcrops, and indeed places, called tor in the Peak District. The rocky fin high above the Manifold Valley within which Thor’s Cave lurks is arguably a tor, so the thinking goes that Thor’s Cave is merely a corruption of “tor’s cave”.

Either way Thor’s Cave has drawn people for as long as there have been recognisable humans. Excavations of the cave by proto-archeologists in 1864-5 and 1927-35 unearthed ancient human bones buried inside as well as the remains of long extinct animals which had probably died inside the cave.

Since the 19th Century Thor’s Cave has been a key tourism site. Something which intensified during the early 20th Century when the Leek and Manifold Light Railway which ran alongside the River Manifold from 1904 until 1934. It was constructed to aid the industrial development of the south western Peak District, however, it ended up becoming a tourist favourite, with large numbers of daytripper alighting at Wetton station which was situated immediately below Thor’s Cave. These days the Manifold Trail, walking, cycling and horse riding route, takes up the former railway trackbed. Since the 1950s Thor’s Cave has been a popular location for climbers as well as walkers.

The Walk

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

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Walk along the Manifold Way, following the River Hamps and River Manifold limestone gorges in the Staffordshire Peak District, from Waterhouses to Thor’s Cave. begins from the bus stop near Waterhouse’s Ye Olde Crown Inn. This is where the small number of buses between Ashbourne and Leek each day stop.

Upon alighting the bus turn and walk past the pub and Waterhouse’s village shop.

Continue along the road for a little distance until you see signs for cycle hire. Here you head down what looks like a narrow lane on the left, crossing the River Hamps which the Manifold Trail initially follows until it reaches its confluence with the River Manifold.

This is the first part of the Manifold Trail which you follow into the river valley entering the Peak District National Park.

You continue straight along the path, through woodland and pasture, past a smattering of hilltop farms, as the hills steadily become taller on each side.

At Beeston Tor you reach the place where the River Hamps converges with the Manifold, and enter the Manifold Valley.

Crossing a road you enter a deep, relatively narrow limestone gorge, approaching the famed Thor’s Cave.

On reaching the base of the rocky outcrop across the gorge where Thor’s Cave stands there is a bridge across the river on the right. Cross the bridge and follow the steep path up to the cave. Having reached the cave descend back to the bridge and carry on along the Manifold Trail north towards its conclusion at Hulme End.

Past Thor’s Cave you near Wetton Mill. Here there is a short section where the trackbed of the former Manifold Light Railway was taken by Staffordshire County Council’s highway engineers and became a road. Take the quieter left hand branch of the lane, and then cross the river to the right via a footbridge to reach Wetton Mill.

Walk past Wetton Mill along a path to the left and through a farmyard.

You pick up another tarmac section of the Manifold Trail on the left, walking high above the River Manifold.

Soon you reach another lane. Turn left here and pick up a narrow footpath to reach the former railway trackbed once more.

Follow the path for another couple of miles to reach Hulme End and the end of the Manifold Way.

You pass Ecton Hill which from the Bronze Age until the end of 19th Century was a major location for copper mining.

Soon the Manifold valley opens up, reaching the flatter land where Warslow, Hulme End and Hartington lie in the heart of the White Peak.

At the end of the Manifold Trail you reach the former, preserved, terminus station of the Manifold Light Railway at Hulme End.

Taking care, as the road is very busy, to reach the bus stop turn right and head through the village of Hulme End and across the River Manifold to reach The Manifold Inn where the bus stop of the Buxton to Ashbourne route lies.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing in June 2026 the 442 bus served Hulme End 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.