Bowden
Bridge Car Park - White Brow - William Clough - Sandy
Heys - The Edge Trig Point - Kinder Downfall - Kinder
Low - Edale Cross - Oaken Clough - Coldwell Clough
- Bowden Bridge Car Park
I ventured north to Hayfield on a cold and windy day.
At least there was some sun although it was hazy and
the forecast for the next few days was for heavy snow.
I therefore thought that it was a good opportunity
to get out before the snowy weather arrived.
I
parked in the Bowden Bridge car park and then headed
along the Kinder Road towards Kinder
Reservoir. After
a short distance I took the path through the woods
alongside the River Kinder. Eventually I arrived
at the gates to the buildings beneath the reservoir
where
I then took the path starting to the left of the
gates and followed a track up steeply to the
start of the
reservoir. The path contours the reservoir below
White Brow. The views across the reservoir
are great. After
a short while the path follows one of the spurs of
the reservoir to the start of William Clough. Here
there is a lovely bridge across the brook. There
was also some woman all with their hands in
the air!!!
Not sure what that was all about other than it was
probably some sort of prayer or healing exercise!!
The
ascent of William Clough is lovely with lots of cascades
and waterfalls. My walk today has so
far followed
the events of the Kinder Trespass of Sunday April
24 1932. On that day about 400 ramblers set off
from Bowden
Bridge quarry. About halfway up William Clough
the trespassers scrambled up towards the Kinder
Plateau
and came face-to-face with the Duke of Devonshire’s
gamekeepers. In the ensuing scuffle one keeper
was slightly hurt as the ramblers pressed on
to the plateau.
Here they were greeted by a group of Sheffield
based trespassers who had set off that morning
crossing
Kinder from Edale. After exchanging congratulations
the two
groups joyously retraced their steps the Sheffield
trespassers back to Edale and the Manchester contingent
to Hayfield. As they returned to the village, five
ramblers were arrested by police accompanied by
keepers and taken to the Hayfield Lock-up.
The day after
the trespass the five ramblers were charged at
New Mills
Police Court with unlawful assembly and breach
of the peace.
At
the top of William Clough (which forms part of the
Snake Path) the path ascends steeply onto
the
edge of the Kinder Plateau. It had been quite
sunny up to this
point but now the conditions had become hazy and very windy. As I rounded
one corner along the edge I was almost blown
off my feet. It was then a case of
“head down” as I continued to where it was more
sheltered. When I arrived at Sandy
Heys I turned north east across the peaty landscape to The Edge triangulation
pillar. The peat was almost frozen which made walking a whole lot easier.
I did not have to make any detours to arrive
at the
trig point. The Edge pillar (S3443)
stands at 624 metres and is only 12 metres off the summit of Kinder Scout.
After a short stop at the trig point I returned
back to the path along the Kinder edge.
The
next viewpoint was the Kinder Downfall where an infant
River Kinder plunges down the steep
rocky cliffs to the valley and reservoir below.
Today
the river
was falling downwards which made a change from the last few times I have
been there. I continued along the edge passing
Red Brook to Kinder Low triangulation
pillar. The weather was certainly very different to when I was last here
with the cold and wind so I decided not to
hang around for too long. I descended
to Edale Rocks and then passing Swine’s Back I descended down again to
the cross
of paths (533 metres). From here I took the Hayfield path passing the
ancient Edale Cross and Oaken Clough to Coldwell
Clough. This is a rough track
which is used by many mountain bikes. From
Coldwell Clough I followed the path
downhill passing The Ashes back to where I
started from at Bowden Bridge car park. This
was an excellent walk and at just under 9 miles is a good day’s family
walk.
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