White Edge and Curbar Edge

It was a lovely autumn day with the coldest weather since last winter. The sky was clear and the sun was shining but there was a very cold wind keeping temperatures around the 4 degrees centigrade mark.

After breakfast at the café in Outside at Calver crossroads, we parked in the pay and display car park near Curbar Gap and got our boots on.

Leaving the car park, we followed a track which was marked by a wide flatter area of grass and heather, passing a group of highland cattle unconcernedly munching on grass or laying in the sun.

Soon we arrived at an intersection of paths and our route lay to the left heading along the gritstone escarpment of White Edge.

To our right was the large expanse of Big Moor and Karen soon spotted a large group of Red Deer with a stag and around a dozen hinds. We had brought binoculars as we knew the red deer were often in that area and soon spotted more stags and harems of hinds.

We stopped at the trig point near the Edge to take advantage of the high viewpoint and soon spotted more red deer in the distance.

Continuing on along the path following the Edge, we took advantage of some flat gritstone boulders with a bit of shelter from the wind to have a short stop and have a hot drink from our flasks.

After the break, we started walking again and followed the path until we arrived at a gap in a drystone wall where the path continued on the other side after passing another path and soon we were passing the White Edge Lodge and then the main road, the A625.

After crossing the road, we went through a gate onto the Longshaw Estate and walked across the grounds to the National Trust owned Longshaw Lodge where we had some coffee and scones in the café.

After the break we again crossed the Estate grounds to follow a path through oak woods above Nether Padley and then through Hay Wood which brought us a couple of kilometres along the A625 which we again crossed and then after passing through a stile by a white wooden five-bar gate, we followed the sandy path along the top of Froggat Edge and then Curbar Edge, two of the Peak's many fine gritstone rock climbing crags.

The path offers views across to the village of Hathersage, and the Hope Valley in the distance and the limestone gorge of Stoney Middleton. Further away we could see what looked like a large plume of white smoke until we realised it was the large fountain at Chatsworth House lit up in the sunshine.

We walked along the remainder of Curbar Edge to arrive back at our starting point.