Day 2 – Hathersage to Baslow – 13 miles (21 km) – 6 hours

Hathersage is a great little village on the eastern side of the Peak District. It’s a popular destination for all manner of outdoor activities – hiking, climbing, and cycling, and has three outdoor activity stores.

After a hot night in the Hathersage YHA with little air flow in the dorm room, I wandered into town for breakfast to find that much of the village doesn’t open until nine, if at all on a Monday or Tuesday. I did, however, find a bakery and bought breakfast, along with a sandwich for lunch.

I headed out of town, past the Scottish Pack pub and the parish church, onto a grass paddock and down some steps, my knees reminding me of the long descent from the day before.

I crossed a paddock following a fence line passing the Cowclose Farm. I crossed the road and headed up a long steep driveway towards the somewhat restored ruins of a Chapel.

Past the chapel, I headed into a small wood, again on a steep trail. When I emerged, I could see the Stanage Edge above me, slightly obscured by clouds. I passed through another small wood before emerging at an open field with a path leading towards the Edge.

The climb to the top felt easy, and before long I was amidst the low clouds. The views were not the greatest because of the low visibility.

I then walked along the top of the Edge on a trail alternating between natural stone, sand and cut stone. The visibility grew shorter as I walked, with small groups of people appearing out of the mist, either walking towards me or preparing to rock climb down the rock wall.

Eventually, I followed a pair of guys and their dog to the highest point, 457 metres, before descending down to the valley below. It was an easy descent but led me off the trail into the bog, which I spent some time crossing back to the path. Thankful for my waterproof boots, I followed this to a carpark. The trail then led me along the top of a gorge, towards the mist covered Higger Tor, a flat-topped ridge with cloud filled views in most directions.

With little to see, I quickly climbed down the other side towards Carl Wark Tor, an Iron Age fort, before descending a boggy field between the two towards the Burbage Bridge.

After a quick lunch, I passed the Longshaw Lodge in the Longshaw Estate and headed up across more sheep-filled paddocks to a junction of several roads. I walked along a driveway towards White Edge Lodge and around the edge of White Edge Moor before heading down into Hay Wood.

I crossed a major road and headed up towards Stoke Flat across the top of Froggatt Edge and passed stone circle and a large cairn, both overgrown. I then followed the top of Curbur Edge for more than a mile, looking at the views of surrounding hills and villages dotted across them.

I crossed a road and continued along Baslow Edge towards the Eagle Stone, a large oddly shaped stone sticking up out of Eaglestone Flat.

The trail then led down a thin stone road down into Baslow, the official end of the hike. But as I had not been able to find cheap accommodation in the village, I waited at a bus stop and messaged the Airbnb owner that I was on my way. She offered to pick me up as it was going to be an hour before the bus arrived. This continued my experience with the people of the Peak District being very friendly.

Day 3 – Baslow to Youlgrave – 12 miles (19.5 km) – 6 hours

Today’s walk is set to be one of the easiest of the six days of this circuit. This is great as my feet are still recovering from the blisters I gained on day one. The weather looks to be cool with no rain, a perfect day for a hike.

The host of the Airbnb put on an excellent breakfast and offered to drop me off in Baslow. Who was I to refuse kindness? From my drop off point, I walked along the main road, down a side street and into Chatsworth Park.

Little did I know that for the next couple of hours I would be walking in this park, a massive estate set aside for both animals and humans to wander through. At the centre is the extensive Chatsworth House and to one side the annual Chatsworth Flower Show.

I continued along the road through the park for some time seeing various birds and plenty of lambs. I passed the flower show and headed to a small village inside the park called Edensor with a large church.

Then I headed south through grassy fields along thin walking tracks to the river, which I followed south.

I finally crossed the river at a bridge and again continued south to another village, Beeley, on the main road. I walked through it and along a steep lane for a hundred metres before crossing grazing fields on my way up to Burnt Wood.

After a brief walk in the forest, the trail crossed a bridge across Smeltingmill Brook and into Rowsley Wood.

Part of the trail through Rowsley Wood was a mess of leaves and cut branches, as some lumber work had been done in the area.

I then dropped down out of the woods via a nettle flanked thin path between two buildings, across a road and into another nettle flanked path to the edge of Rowsley, where I stopped for lunch. I then got back on the trail and walked along the road out of town to another set of farm paddocks, this time with cattle, before following the steadily climbing lane up towards Stanton in Peak.

I walked through town climbing another road and through the forest to Stanton Park. As I entered the park, my GPS deciding to take some time off. I followed a trail and came to the main attraction in the park, The Nine Ladies, a stone circle with a legend, nine ladies caught dancing on the Sabbath and turned to stone.

Based on my map I took a guess at the right trail and when my GPS woke up again I was still in the park, but nowhere near where I hoped to be. I found my way out of the park onto a road and headed along it until I picked up the trail again. This lead me down a path to the village of Birchover. The sun decided to make an appearance as I followed a thin lane out of town for half a mile, and down a steep bank to a major road. On the other side, I found a long driveway climbing a hill with more sheep. I followed and came to an area with some rock formations, one known as Robin Hood’s Stride, and along another with a cave where a hermit once lived.

I crossed the fields beyond the formations and passed circle of four large stones before coming to a quiet road. I walked around a farmyard and up a hill to a location called the Castle Ring, an old Iron Age hill fort. Then it was all downhill and across a pair of sheep paddocks to Youlgrave, where I climbed a steep road up to my hostel.