Paul Lydon: A Walk Along Cracken Edge from Chinley

Although the weather forecast for today was for dry weather, there was light rain as we left Winster and drove to near Chapel-en-le-Frith and parked in Chinley. There was a heavy shower with very small hailstones just as we parked so we waited for the rain to stop.
Luckily it was only a short shower and for the next couple of hours there were a few more very light showers and then the weather improved.
We set off a short distance up the road and the crossed the Manchester to Sheffield railway line which runs through Chinley, via a pedestrian bridge. This led to an uphill path through a recreation area with picnic tables and then through a small gate onto a minor road.
Turning left along the road, we turned right and followed a narrow lane with grass growing in the middle with walls either side which increasingly gained height and offered more and more views of the surrounding countryside.

Ancient sunken track

Soon we reached rougher, open ground beneath the old gritstone quarries of Cracken Edge. We followed what looked like an old path which served the quarries which was flat and ran along the side of Cracken Edge.

Approaching Cracken Edge

Quarry Winding Gear on Cracken Edge

Old Quarry Workings on Cracken Edge

View From Cracken Edge

At the end of the Edge, we followed a muddy section past an old farm building then down a muddy track until we met the busy A624 main road. We crossed to the other side and then after a very short distance followed a lane which brought us to a gate and more open countryside. We followed the obvious track skirting below the hill of Mount Famine to reach South Head. Soon we were on another lane which was signposted as part of the Pennine Bridleway. Reaching a junction, we continued through a gate onto a track continuing in the same direction and ignored the track which headed off at a right-angle. Not far down this track we could see we would be dropping down quite a long way and then have to climb back up again and Karen noticed that things didn't “look right”.
We checked the map and realised that we should have taken the other track, the one heading off at a right angle! Luckily we had only gone a few hundred metres, so we turned around and headed back towards the junction where we had taken the wrong turning,
We again reached a wall and a gate and as there was good shelter from the breeze and it seemed a good place to stop, we sat on some flat rocks behind the wall and ate our lunch. There were good views across to the plateau of Kinder Scout, and you could make out the waterfall, Kinder Downfall. As is often the case, much of the water from the waterfall was being blown upwards by the wind.

Kinder Downfall in the Distance

After lunch were were soon back at the junction and this time we turned left along the correct route. This led us down another track past an old farm and eventually back to recross the A624 again, this time in the opposite direction. After crossing a few fields we reached another track and then passed beneath a bridge carrying the railway line we had crossed over earlier.
Soon we were back on the roads in Chinley and after a short distance back where we had left the car.