Okay, Okay…The Places We Will Go has taken us to Stanage Edge today….August Bank Holiday Monday. And oh boy did we get a fantastic day. Absolutely stunning! For all the images go to our Facebook Page.
Stanage Edge is situated just south of Sheffield in the Peak District National Park about 1hr 15 mins from our home. Sonia used to live in a nearby village for a many years but, until recently neither she nor I had really been interesting in walking so we have never investigated much of this amazing landscape. Also any walks we have done have usually been around parks or country houses, so when we decided that we would walk from Hathersage to the top of Stanage Edge with Bugs and Boo it really was a bit of a challenge. Note neither Bugs or Boo particularly appreciate being extracted from the iPad at the best of times and even less so when it simply involves walking up a big hill…even if [Childs mocking voice] ‘it is really pretty‘.
We arrived in Hathersage (which was rammed) just before lunch and grabbed a bite to eat. Liam joined us, Sonia’s eldest who has lived nearby with his dad since his GCSEs. Unfortunately he couldn’t join us for our walk but it was a nice surprise for Bugs and Boo who love to see him. Now that we’re fuelled for our journey and have said goodbye to Liam we set off for ‘The Edge’….Now, we had no idea: how long; how far or to be honest the way to go, we had no map and no GPS. So it was good that there were a sprinkling of hardcore professional walkers regularly speeding past us always with their pointy sticks and proper walking boots.
The journey started in lush green farmland, the track we followed led directly north out Hathersage, past the cricket club. The track swept alongside a brook past the odd idealic homestead situated in vast open fields which were dotted with sheep and the odd hay bale. It wasn’t long before the path and stream led us to a densely wooded glade where we were badgered by the odd bramble or assaulted by a rogue stinging nettle. As a constant in the background throughout our journey we could see our target, Stanage Edge, and it turned out this was really helpful to motivate (coax) the kids…we could honestly say we were nearly there :O) mwwwhahaha.
After hacking our way through the wood, we started to turn more steeply up hill, through a field of fern plants, in places up to my waist. After a small skirmish with some sheep we were plunged back into a more substantial wood, with a wide track which finally led us out to the base of Stanage Edge. Below the line of rocks was a sea of more ferns the fronds of which were all swaying in the wind. The rocks were absolutely alive with climbers and walkers.
We must have only completed about 2 or 3 miles but we were quite tired and the kids were losing hope, even though the rock face was right in front of us. One final push… and then we got lost! Absolutely ridiculous: people all around us but we got lost in the ferns. After finding the trail we made a second final push…a stone staircase, another small wood and some rocks to climb and we were finally there. The last bit, although steep, was actually really easy as some kind people had put in a natural rock staircase, and Bugs had become superpowered.
The view was stunning, to be honest the view was stunning all the way up but standing on the edge looking out over a large part of northern Derbyshire with hot sunshine and wind to cool was an absolute joy. We sat there for about 30 mins took the obligatory photos, watered the kids and then sped back down…what took us about 2hrs to get up, it literally took us 35-40 mins to get back. We were all quite tired on our return but both Sonia and I really enjoyed our little adventure… and unbelievably so did the kids.
Hathersage to Stanage Edge…we will do it again…B E A UT-IFUL!
