I make absolutely no apologies whatsoever for returning to Longnor after publishing a walk from the village to Hartington last September and another one not a million miles away, from Earl Sterndale to Chrome Hill, in May. This is a particularly splendid part of the Peak District and one that requires further investigation if you tend to stick to Derbyshire and the eastern side of the A515.
You’d struggle to find such a photogenic place as well. The cobbled marketplace has narrow lanes running off, proper chippy, popular café, a pub just down the road and a couple of benches with magnificent views across the surrounding countryside. I’ve bagged one of the last parking places on the cobbles and am now heading west on the Leek road. Go straight on down Gauledge Lane when it swings left. You’re on the Manifold Trail, a linear walk of about 23 miles from the Traveller’s Rest pub in Flash to the Dovedale car park near Ilam as opposed to the Manifold Way from Hulme End to Waterhouses which sees about 23 million cyclists converge there every bank holiday.
Head left just before Gauledge Farm and walk across a couple of fields before taking the left hand fork to drop you down to a footbridge. It’s a fine summer morning with what BBC Weather described as a moderate breeze helping to keep a mini mid July heatwave at bay. It’s also the day before Boris Johnson was likely to become Prime Minister, just a year after I confidently predicted that he’d scuppered his chances of ever getting the top job following his comment about women wearing burkas looking like letter boxes. I’ll stick to walking in future.
The path continues in an obvious fashion to a farm called Fawside before swinging left to take you across the valley and back to the Leek road. Turn right and right again at Hardings Booth, past a couple of very small but perfectly formed holiday cottages pictured above before starting the climb to Fawside Edge. There’s a path almost directly opposite when you reach the top of the hill but pause for a moment when you go over the stile to take in the south western flanks of Chrome Hill straight ahead plus a pretty good view of another local looker called High Wheeldon about half right. Parkhouse Hill comes into view a few yards further on. It doesn’t look anything much at this point but you’ll be coming up close to it in all its vertiginous glory soon after Hollinsclough so if you’re that way inclined you can take a diversion up there.
Turn right at a road then almost immediately left through a couple of heavy duty seven-bar metal gates. Head straight on but check your Explorer map to find the exit point of a strangely shaped field before arriving at a track that leads you to a lane where you’ll discover three huge boulders blocking the access for off-roaders who have destroyed this and at least one other of the so-called green lanes to the south west of Hollinsclough. There are a couple more similar boulders that completely block the bottom of the lane but you could either vault them like a gymnast or clamber over them less gracefully as I did.
Chrome (left) and Parkhouse from near Beggar’s Bridge.
Turn left to discover a couple of benches in front of the chapel hall awaiting your halfway halt if that’s the case, then immediately right past the school and left at a track that will take you to a road at the foot of the now much more imposing Parkhouse Hill. The rest of the way back is a doddle. Head right, then left at the B road and almost immediately right on a lane opposite the garage at Glutton Bridge. After about a mile of level strolling down the Dove valley, turn right again on a bridlepath that will take you across Beggar’s Bridge and back into Staffordshire while remembering to savour the views of Chrome and his pals to your right. It’s a short sharp schlepp up to Top o’the’ Edge before your return to the middle of Longnor. You’ll find that all roads, lanes and ginnels take you to where you want to be.
Start: Longnor market place.
Lunch: Longnor café, chippie, pub or benches. Hollinsclough benches at halfway point.
Song: Fifty years since Isaac Hayes released Hot Buttered Soul, here’s the sensational Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.
Distance/map: 6.6 miles, two hours and 45 minutes. OS Explorer OL24 The Peak District/White Peak Area.
Highlight: Longnor. Lovely jubbly.
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Walks with welf 