Walk from Monsal Head, 6.95 miles

7 October

Yes, we drove for two hours each way to do a seven-mile walk. Well, I didn’t, Galina did. But the point stands.

My colleague Rebecca, who was one of the ‘OU Pretty Things’ team that did the BHF walk in May, announced her intention a few months ago of setting herself a Three Peaks challenge over the next year – not the actual Three Peaks Challenge as that’s a bit mental, but doing Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike over the course of the year. With that in mind, she’d suggested doing a walk further afield in order to get some practice at steeper climbs and had suggested either the Brecon Beacons or the Peak District. As the Peaks (or the south Peaks, at any rate) are a shorter drive from Milton Keynes, we plumped for that. Rebecca’s original (probably quite sensible) plan had been to drive up the evening before and stay over, but several of the others indicated that they’d prefer to do it in a day, so that was what we did in the end. Galina volunteered her family’s people carrier and we all met at the Milton Keynes Coachway at 7:00 am on the chosen Saturday, and piled in.

On arrival we parked at the Monsal Head car park and walked down to the floor of Monsal Dale, pausing for photos by the River Wye (one of several, seemingly).

Sara, Galina, Hai, Matt and me [Rebecca taking photo]

Lunch

Steep climb up to Brushfield Hough. Briefly crossed the Wye for the second time in Millers Dale to visit Litton Mill, which I’m sure I remember learning about in school as being an example of some pretty ghastly working conditions. It’s now converted into accommodation. We paused here for lunch, along with another group of walkers.

Briefly crossed over the Monsal Trail, which apparently used to carry the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway. Quite a mouthful, but it must have been a scenic route.

Monsal Trail

We had a quick look into Litton Tunnel - the trail continues through the tunnel, but Rebecca elected to go up and over, using what one walk blogger I found termed "an exhilarating path clinging to the bank of the valley" (sorry, I'd reference you if I could find the article again). It was indeed quite exhilarating, though the others with cooler heads than mine didn't seem too bothered by it. Here we are heading to peruse Litton Tunnel; the start of the 'up and over' path can be seen on the left. The second photo, taken by Rebecca, shows us making our way along the path - the figure at the rear is me having a quick sit down to gather myself.

We finished the walk by crossing the viaduct and returning to Monsal Head, where we went for tea and cake in Hobb's Café.

View from the viaduct

Tea

Interesting walk with some great views, though some quite strenuous bits in parts (for my level of fitness, at least). Bit of a drizzly day.

Took the opportunity on this walk to try out the Buff I'd recently bought on Dave's recommendation, after the blustery Chilterns experience in previous post. It indeed proved quite useful.

Map and elevation below: