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The Moorlands of The Peak District

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The northern 'chunk' of the Peak District, lying in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, is home to the dramatic upland moors, peat and heather, vast skies and a view to the hroizon from the tops. It's the walker's country. Here you'll find Saddleworth Moor, Featherbed Moss, Howden Moors, Bleaklow and Kinder Scout. Three major roads cross from west to east and a few minor roads snake along between them but the moors retain their integrity.

From Glossop you can take the A57 through the Snake Pass, over High Peak passing the Ladybower Reservoir on your left, and drop down into the village of Bamford, on the eastern side of the National Park. From Hollingworth, just outside Glossop, you can take the A628, over the tops and either branch left for Holmfirth or carry on through the Woodhead Pass towards Barnsley. From Greenfield (outskirts of Oldham) you can take the A635 over Saddleworth Moor to Holmfirth. Each of these runs offers staggering views without ever leaving your car.

On Bleaklow, at Higher Shelf Stones, one can still see the wreckage of a reconnaissance plane, a Boeing RB-29A Superfortress, which crashed on en route between Scampton and Burtonwood. A memorial plaque has been erected close by. Many consider that Kinder Scout can lay claim to being the most majestic and dramatic of these high moors in the Dark Peak. Crowden Head, the highest point in the Peak distict is on this high gritstone plateau. At the edge of this plateau the River Kinder falls straight over the edge in a dramatic watefall known as the 'Kinder Downfall' On the moorland uplands of the Dark Peak there are deep cloughs, fast flowing rivers and streams and reservoirs providing drinking water for neighbouring towns and cities.

Hamlets and scattered farms and houses are dotted around the fringes but, for the most part, this is a region inhabited only by sheep. The Pennine Way long distance walk wends its way north to south (or vice versa!) through much of this region. It starts in Edale, crosses Kinder Scout and The Peak, across Featherbed Top and then across the A57 at the Snake Pass (not far from the old Roman Road and 'Doctor's Gate'), skirting Bleaklow Hill. It carries on across the A628 by the reservoir, across Featherbed Moss and Black Hill by Saddleworth Moor crossing the A635 midway between Greenfield and Holmfirth. It leaves the Peak District as it crosses the A62 before it carries on to its final destination, Kirk Yetholm and the Cheviots.