Paul Lydon: Hathersage Moor from Grindleford Station

It was a cold day with temperatures close to freezing and also with a cold wind as we parked on the approach road to Grindleford train station near the Grindleford Cafe.

From there we followed steps leading up to the adjacent minor road and then crossed the road bringing us to a continuation of the footpath, again with steps leading upwards towards the Longshaw Estate.

We crossed the open woodland of the Estate and had a short break at the National Trust café for tea and scones before leaving the old lodge and walking along the tarmac drive to then cross the road near the Fox House Inn.

There a large wooden gate across the road with a smaller gate next to it and this leads to another path through a wooded section of moorland.

Another road to cross, this time the Sheffield to Hathersage road, and we had a choice of footpaths. We chose the one which leads along the top of the Burbage Edges gritstone crags. From this high vantage point you could see quite a distance and we could easily make out Lose Hill, Mam Tor en even the prominent Minning Low in the far distance.

There were quite a few walkers around now, probably because there is a small car park at Upper Burbage Bridge, which isn't very far away and also several climbers walking long with their large bouldering crash pads attached to their backs like gigantic rucksacks. We never had these crash pads in my days (Groan! Groan!) when we went bouldering!

Anyway, we found a nice spot below Upper Burbage Bridge which was sheltered from the cold wind and still with some of the weak sunshine and we sat there to have our lunch.

Afterwards we followed another footpath leading to the prominent feature in the landscape known as Higger Tor and we crossed the rocky small plateau on its summit after following rough and wide rocky steps.

Dropping back down from Higger Tor on the opposite side there was a continuing path which now led us to more rocky steps and the top of another similar but smaller gritstone feature up which are the remains of the ancient Iron Age Carl Wark Fort.

Again, we followed another path on the far side which eventually brought us back to the Sheffield to Hathersage road near where we had crossed it earlier.

After crossing this road, we followed a path which was quite muddy in places and followed along one side of the small Burbage Brook. Soon we reached to top of Padley Gorge and we followed the path through the old twisted trees in the wood lining the Gorge until we were back at Grindleford café.