Hayfield, Cluther Rocks, Kinder Scout, Brown Knoll, Derbyshire.
[15.9 km] Wed 17 Apr 2013

SK 0483 8688
The weather forecast for the Cumbria area was very bad with high winds and rain. Further south there was likely to be less rain so I headed back to Hayfield to have another look at the Kinder Scout area. After an easy drive I left my car in the lane across from the hideously expensive car park and set off up the lane. At the old sheep wash pool by the River Kinder I turned right up the lane past a few nice stone house conversions to where a path leaves the road and heads up across a field.

The weather up ahead was cloudy and the field track took me up a ridge and across green fields to Broad Clough and the Peak District border. By now I was just over 400 m altitude and in low cloud. I followed a walled path south then took a minor path up onto the hillside. The path was easy to follow but the main problem was no views of any kind which is even more frustrating as it’s a path I’ve never been on before. It climbed steadily up and through Cluther Rocks to the main plateau area of Kinder Scout.

The main path here is the Pennine Way and is much wider and better surfaced. For a while I headed off across flat bog to visit the trig post on Kinder Low then continued south towards the main path junction to the east of Edale Cross.

I wasn’t visiting the cross today as I wanted to check out the trig post on Brown Knoll. I had no idea what the path would be like so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was old stone flags placed on the surface. They didn’t look like they’d been there all that long. Unfortunately there was no official path for the last stretch to Brown Knoll and I had to navigate across featureless moor in the mist. The post was surrounded by mud.

I returned to the main path and walked on over the easy stone slabs. After reaching a gate the slabs stopped but the path wasn’t too bad to follow. The large hump of South Head appeared in front of me but the path passed it to the right without going over the top. I was also below the cloud now and had some distant views. The path is now a good track and I followed it to the west of Mount Famine then turned right before Higher Heys Farm and down a steep track down to Coldwell Clough. There I reached the tarmac track I’d used the last time I was here and followed it back to the car. As expected the lane had lots of cars parked and the car park was almost empty.