Paul Lydon: A Walk from Hayfield to New Mills

We had been planning to be in North Wales staying at the Oread Mountaineering Club hut at Rhyd Ddu but the weather forecast was so dire (very wet and very windy with gusts up to 100 mph on the tops!), we decided to stay at home in Derbyshire.

Yesterday was just very windy at rained all day even at home so it was an opportunity to stay indoors and get those things done which had been waiting for ages.

Today was supposed to be a bit less windy but drier in the afternoon after a wet night and early morning so we decided to repeat a walk which Karen had done with the mid-week walking group.

We drove to the village of Hayfield and parked in the car park from where we followed the old railway route converted to a cycle, horse-riding and walking route known as the Sett Valley Trail. The Trail is 2.5 miles long and links Hayfield with the town of New Mills.

At New Mills we walked along a path in The Torrs a gorge in the town where the rivers Sett and Goyt join. There are many old mills sited here which made use of the abundant water power and an interesting Heritage Centre. We had a break in the Heritage Centre to have a cup of tea and chocolate muffins and had a look at the various items exhibited there including a model of New Mills and The Torrs showing the various mills.

Continuing onwards after the short break the path arrived at a section where there was no river bank and a raised walkway had been built along a high wall at the side of the river. There were several old ruins of mill buildings and a modern hydro-electric scheme based on the Archimedes Screw principle next to the river. This wasn't running as the river was running very high after all the rain.

We reached a public footpath following a grassy track which was quite wet after all the rain and them followed the route across several water-logged fields.

Soon we reach high ground with views down to New Mills and Hayfield and luckily although a bit boggy in parts, it wasn't to bad under foot.

Unfortunately we could see rain moving in in the distance. Up to now it had been overcast and blustery but dry and very mild for February with temperatures at 10 degrees centigrade. Soon the rain caught us up and luckily wasn't very heavy and also as the wind was blowing from behind, the rain was also coming from behind.

We reached a small TV transmitter with a drystone wall nearby and I made use of the shelter provided by the wall to don waterproof overtrousers.

As we dropped past the transmitter and were in the lee of the hill, the wind was making the most amazing noise as it tore past the transmitter.

There remained only a short downhill stretch which brought us back to Hayfield and the car park.