Win Hill

We parked near Yorkshire Bridge in Bamford on a colder and showery day and began the short but steep approach to Win Hill. This was a route which followed gritstone steps, bare rock and what looked like a broken down wall, which followed on one side of a small and shallow valley in woods.
As Karen and I neared the rocky summit, we saw the views all around with the Hope Valley on one side and the Derwent and Ladybower Reservoirs on the other. Then we had a short shower of small hailstones – not bad for the beginning of May!
Now out of the shelter of the woods, we could feel the fairly strong and cold wind. Near the summit we stopped for a drink in the shelter of some rocks near the trig. Point, and very soon after we could see another shower moving in.

Summit of Win Hill

Luckily the rocks offered good shelter from the cold wind and the shower and once it had finished, we continued on our way. This followed the broad ridge parallel to Ladybower Reservoir on the North side with extensive views across the Hope Valley to the South and the Edale Valley to the North-East.
The path and ridge approached the edge of a wood and at Woody Knoll we sat on part of a broken drystone wall in a well-sheltered spot and had our lunch while taking in the views across the Hope Valley while the sun was out.
Afterwards we dropped down steep, grassy ground to an old track marked as “course of Roman Road” on the map and followed this after letting a family in a Land Rover Discovery bump along past us. The track soon led to a junction with a path and we continued onwards dropping down a narrowing in the track meeting a small group of horse riders making their way towards us. The track passed through a gate into the woods and followed the track as it dropped down via a few bends to approach the river below and the beginnings of the reservoir.

We now followed the track at the edge of the woods with the flooded valley of the reservoir below increasing in width and saw a number of fisherman fishing. We continued along the track with increasingly wider views of the reservoir and after a few kilometres reached the dam.

All that remained was to continue on a path past the dam and along a small road to arrive back at the bridge where we had started earlier. Of course there had to be another short shower while we took our boots off!
I wore Keela stretch trousers, Asolo Fugitive GTX boots, Paramo Velez Adventure Light smock and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.