Hayfield, Kinder Downfall, Kinder Low, Edale Cross, Derbyshire.
[15.3 km] Wed 03 Apr 2013

SK 0486 8690
I arrived at the car park and wasn’t surprised to see a ‘pay & display’ machine. To pay for a day walk would cost £3.50 so as there was plenty of room along the public highway I parked there and expected others would do the same as the day progressed. I had a look around the car park as it is the site of the start of the mass trespass in 1932. On 24 April 1932 over 400 people participated in a mass trespass onto Kinder Scout. A plaque fixed to a rock marks the spot.

At the end of the Public road was an old sheep dip on the right with a good information board and photo nearby. A path sign pointed to the right but I continued along the reservoir access road as I’d just seen others head that way. A steep cobbled path headed up towards the reservoir embankment. Before I reached it I turned sharp left up what I thought was a path but it turned out not to be. It didn’t matter as it took me to a higher path by a nicer route. There was still quite a bit of drifted snow by the walls as I walked along the side of White Brow.

Old photo of the sheep wash in used

There was a nice view of the reservoir before the path descended to William Clough and more snow drifts. The path was intermittent but easy to follow. Even down in the valley there was quite a cold easterly wind blowing. It’s the first time I’ve been on this path but at the top of the ridge I reached a path I had been on some years before. There was a large frozen snowfield as I climbed up to the Kinder summit. Just to be safe I’d put my ice studs on my boots but the tops were mostly clear so I took them off. The cloudy weather at the start began to clear a bit so I had a cold, windy but pleasant walk to Kinder Downfall. I was on the Pennine Way and followed it south to Kinder Low and the trig point where the wind was gusting to 13 m/s. Further south I descended to a west turn and Edale Cross which was in a stone wall recess. Annoyingly the wall was right up to the back of the cross and obscuring some of the inscriptions on the rear. There was still quite a lot of snow on the path as I descended to Coldwell Clough and a surfaced road. I missed the path turn off I’d planned to used but walking along the road was still quite enjoyable. The road took me all the way back to Bowden Bridge and the car park. 

THIS MEDIAEVAL CROSS
IS PROTECTED AS A
MONUMENT OF NATIONAL
IMPORTANCE UNDER THE
ANCIENT MONUMENT ACT
1913 - 53
MINISTRY OF PUBLIC BUILDING & WORKS