Paul Lydon: Northern Edge of Kinder Scout

After parking in a small layby on the Snake Pass Road near the Snake Pass Inn, we crossed the road and walked about 50 metres back towards the Inn to find a stile in the wall.

Over the stile was a footpath wending its way through the small coniferous plantation of Lady Clough, which brought us to a footbridge crossing over the River Ashop.

We followed the footpath in a light drizzle along Fair Brook valley and could see the cloud cover was low enough to cover the Kinder plateau so it would be a misty walk with continuing damp conditions.

We passed a group of kids being brought along Fair Brook thoroughly enjoying themselves clambering up small waterfalls in the brook, probably some form of “gorge walking”.

Further on, in the light rain which the drizzle had now become, we passed another group of kids with a few adults who were making there way along the path above the brook.

Onwards and upwards, we continued and followed a narrow path which avoided the boulders in the brook as the water levels were highish probably due to the melted snow over the past few days. Last Wednesday, the Snake Pass Road had been closed due to heavy snowfall and except for small remaining patches of snow here and there, it had nearly all melted away.

It was quite windy now we had reached the plateau and we paused in the lee of some large boulders overlooking the Fair Brook valley and had a drink.

Afterwards, we followed the path wending its way along the plateau edge passing the promontory of Fairbrook Naze. There wasn't much of a view due to the thick mist and light rain but it did make the large boulders and rock formations loom out of the mist making it difficult to see if they were large and far away or smaller and nearer.

Karen ha dbeen out on one of her mid-week walks with a group she walks with a while ago on this route and they had visited an aircraft crash site before heading back along the Snake Path and we had plans to do the same.

The problem was that as we made our way along a section called The Edge, it was difficult to see where to drop down from the plateau to Ashop Clough.

We stopped and I was just about to get my GPS receiver about to check on our position while Karen walked about 50 metres down the slope to see if she could spot the fence and stile we needed to cross.

Just then the mist temporarily cleared and she could see them!

So she shouted for me to follow and I did so and we crossed over the fence using the stile soon we dropped out of the cloud and could see the remains of the crashed aircraft a short distance away.

We followed a narrow sheep track which ran at an angle towards the remains of the two Canadian Sabre 4s which had crashed here on July 22^nd, 1954.

They had taken off from their base at Lintin-on-Ouse, north-west of York and despite the fact the should have been 50 miles away and flying at 30,000 feet, they had been flying low and had crashed here.

We paused and had a look at the remains of the aircraft then continued on down the valley of Ashop Clough and at a suitable point crossed to the other side of the River Ashop.

The path continued as a section of the Snake Path with the occasional boggy section and at a small foot bridge, we crossed back again to the opposite bank and followed a rising path on the southern side of the river which rose up the side of the valley high above the river.

Following the path we eventually spotted the Snake Pass Inn again in the distance and after passing the pub, the path dropped down again to arrive at the footbridge we had crossed earlier next to Lady Clough wood.

After crossing the bridge, we retraced our route through the wood, over the stile and back to our starting point.