We've just returned from a week's holiday in the Peak District... with our two daughters, two sons-in-law, two grandsons and two granddaughters!
We had an absolutely wonderful time. The weather was perfect, which allowed us all to have dinner together sitting outside every evening and we all went on visits together every day but one. We went to Chatsworth, Ladybower Reservoir, Dovedale, Matlock and the Heights of Abraham, and my wife and I did several trail runs in the forests surrounding the holiday park while the others were getting themselves sorted for the day. We also did one significant adventure on our own, with which I'll start my report...
Our plan was to do a circuit from Castleton that would involve the sort of elevation gain that's hard to come by in North Kent. And we wanted to do it at a reasonably fast pace, which meant gentle jogging on the flat, running down any hills and walking briskly up any inclines.
I'd bought two books of Peak District walks for a holiday here two years ago: Day Walks in the Peak District - the 'classic' and 'new' circular routes editions - and I joined Cave Dale & the Great Ridge from one book with Lord's Seat & Eldon Hill from the other to make a 15 mile circuit with lots of hills!
We parked in Castleton - arriving very early because we'd learned quickly that the Peak District was heaving with people - and set off up Cave Dale and along the Limestone Way path. Although the day would become warm later, it was a very cold start! We crested Eldon Hill and ran down across misty fields to join the Pennine Bridleway. Then it was a long uphill slog to Lord's Seat, which turned out to be the first of five distinct peaks (or perhaps simply high points) on the Great Ridge.
I have to admit that I didn't really know what to expect of the Great Ridge - I sort of assumed we'd go steadily uphill to Mam Tor, then steadily downhill to the far end. But it turned out to be very undulating with some quite challenging ups followed by wonderfully runnable downs for well over four miles. And the views were always spectacular!
From the final peak - Lose Hill - we descended steeply across farmland into the village of Hope and from there we followed a river back to Castleton. We covered the distance of just over 15 miles in 4 hrs 19 mins, and the total elevation gain was 2,700 ft.
Soon after leaving Castleton, we were heading up Cave Dale on a very rocky path that was almost a stream. On the ridge behind us, we could see Peveril Castle. We loved this spectacular gorge and the climb helped us to forget the cold!
Much later, as we neared Lord's Seat, we could see what we guessed must be Mam Tor (directly above my wife's head) far away in the distance. By this time, the cold mist had cleared and it was pleasantly warm:
I think that must be Lord's Seat behind my wife as she takes a photo of me...
...standing on the next (unnamed?) rise - as I'm about to take the previous photo of her. Running and walking along this ridge was just magical:
There was some quite 'technical' terrain just before we got to the very 'untechnical' paved steps to the summit of Mam Tor. That's me in the left-hand photo and until this point there was hardly anyone else around. And then we reached a road... and we were suddenly part of the biggest crowd we've ever seen on any summit (right - and no chance of a trig point photo!). From here all the way to Lose Hill, about two miles further on, we were among hundreds of people on the ridge - I exaggerate not!
Fortunately, most people didn't stray far from Mam Tor. We climbed the steep rough path to (what I'm guessing was) Back Tor (the next summit, but I'm happy to be corrected!) and found just a few dozen tougher souls sitting around admiring the amazing views...
Finally, we arrived at the final high point - Lose Hill - and only had to wait a couple of minutes for the view point marker to be clear for a photo:
The run down from Lose Hill was as good as it gets - steep, but not too steep, and grassy. We were enjoying it so much that we missed a turn and ended up going much further down than we'd planned. The point where we had to climb back up again can be clearly seen on the map - it was a bit embarrassing struggling back up the hill past a group of people we'd whizzed past just a few minutes before!
The hill levelled off as we reached farmland and we climbed a great many stiles and went through a good many gates - first into Hope and then along the riverside path back to Castleton.
We agreed that the Great Ridge circuit was easily one of the best routes we've ever done. It was varied, it provided fantastic views, and it was tremendous fun!
