[1] On leaving Chinley Station turn left at the information boards and go along Station Road to junction at end. Turn left and immediately right and continue along left hand pavement until a footpath sign on the left. Follow the sign and go down a track (Alders Lane) under a railway tunnel and continue until you come to a cattle grid. Fork right up a drive and go to the right of Alders Farm House to a gate. Continue diagonally right across a field to another gate then go up the field with the wall and barn on your right.
[2] At the top cross Hayfield Road (A624) and go up the lane straight ahead.
To the left are views of Chinley Churn across the lovely Chinley valley, and to the south beyond Chinley is Eccles Pike.
Keep straight ahead. The lane becomes a walled grassy path with gateways. Keep the wall on your right, and after a wooden stile, climbs steeply and then over a stone stile to meet the Pennine Bridleway (with the peak of South Head on the right).
(A) The Pennine Bridleway which you follow from near South Head was the first purpose-built long distance bridleway for horse riders, mountain bikers and walkers. 190 km of the route are currently open from Derbyshire up to and including the 75 km Mary Towneley Loop in the South Pennines, named after the lady who first rode 400 km from Corbridge in Northumberland to Ashbourne in Derbyshire to launch the idea. It is intended that the route will eventually run from Middleton Top in Derbyshire to Byrness in Northumberland, a total of 555km.
[3] Turn right along the bridleway to pass to the left of South Head. Beware of cyclists on the bridleway.
You could slog up South Head for the view, descending to a point further on the bridleway, but remember you have several more demanding climbs ahead!
Continue following the contours for a while, and then the track winds round as it descend into Roych Clough. At the fords keep right through a gate and start climbing again.
(B) The views are now over Chapel-en-le Frith and the hills beyond. At this point you cross over the Cowburn Tunnel which you may have passed through on the train. The tunnel is 3,385 m long. It was built in 1891 by the Midland Railway and takes the Hope Valley Line west out of Edale valley, to emerge near Chinley.
Unusually, the tunnel is not built at a constant gradient. In fact, the summit of the line between Dore and Chinley lies within the tunnel, about a quarter of the way from the eastern end. From the summit, the tunnel falls at 1 in 100 eastwards and 1 in 150 westwards. Nevertheless, when the headings met, they were no more than 25mm out of line in the vertical direction, and met exactly in the horizontal direction. Only one vertical shaft was used. In the 1970's this rail route was controversially given precedence over the more modern Woodhead route (which had then only recently been re-engineered and electrified), as the preferred passenger route between Manchester and Sheffield.
[4] Eventually (about 4km/2.5 miles after South Head) you reach the old main Sheffield Road, where you turn left through a gate onto a path parallel to the road. The path then bears away from the road on a track rising up to the ridge called Rushup Edge. At the signpost, keep right to Hope and Mam Tor. After two stiles, look for an old tumulus on the left at the highest point, Lord’s Seat, around 550m high. (This is a good stopping point with a magnificent view of the ridge ahead, the Edale valley and Kinder Scout beyond.) Continue on the ridge which narrows as the path descends towards Mam Nick. Here it is probably better to divert down onto the cycle track on the right to avoid the steep scramble off the end, unless diverting to Edale.
You can here shorten the walk by by dropping down to Edale Station:
As you descend to the road at Mam Nick take the left hand fork off the ridge. Near the road take a path left which avoids the first sharp bend and rejoins the road over a stile. Continue down the road for 200m then take a public footpath at a stile on the right. This descends more or less straight, entering Harden Clough where it becomes a farm track, passing through the farm. In 500m cross a stream to meet the road. A right and left turn brings you to Edale Station.
[5] Cross the road and go through the gate leading to the paved steps up Mam Tor.
(C) Mam Tor (517m high), literally translates as Heights of the Mother. The summit is encircled by a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort. Radiocarbon analysis suggests occupation from around 1200 BC. The earliest remaining features are two Bronze Age burial mounds, one just below the summit and the other on the summit itself. At a later stage over a hundred small platforms were leveled into the hill near the summit, allowing inhabited timber huts to be constructed.
It is also known as the Shivering Mountain on account of the instability of its lower shale layers. Indeed, in 1979 the continual battle to maintain the A625 road on the crumbling southern side of the hill was lost when the road officially closed as a through route.
Continue along the ridge as it descends to the junction of pathways at Hollins Cross (Hyett Memorial). Stay on the main path continuing up the ridge and after a while cross the fence to come to the steep but short ascent of Back Tor. Eventually the path brings you to the end of the Great Ridge at Lose Hill (476m).
Pause here for views up the Edale valley, across to Jaggers Clough and Win Hill, and South to the Castleton valley and Abney moor.
(D) Lose Hill gets its name from the Battle of Win Hill and Lose Hill in 626. Prince Cwichelm and his father, King Cynegils of Wessex, possibly with the aid of King Penda of Mercia, gathered their forces on neighbouring Lose Hill and marched on the Northumbrians based on Win Hill. Despite their superior numbers, Wessex was defeated by the Northumbrians building a wall and rolling boulders down upon them.
[6] Bear right to descend down stone steps to a stile across a fence. Bear right to another stile on your right and go over the stile, turning left alongside the fence. The path descends alongside trees, eventually bending left through a gate to go around the back of Losehill Farm (on your right). Follow the path to a stile and then immediately turn right over another stile signposted to Hope.
[7] Yellow way-markers indicate the path across the fields descending towards Hope, through a gate, over a bridge, then several stiles and narrow gates. Passing a small bungalow on your right, you come to a bridge across a railway, then after crossing fields to a finger post signposted left to Edale Road.
From here it is around 25 minutes to Hope Station. If you have just missed a train and need to kill time before the next one, you can continue ahead into Hope village. Here you turn left along the A625 until you reach the road left to the station.
[8] Turn left onto the path and then over a stone stile and cross the Edale Road. Turn left after crossing and immediately go right down Bower Lane and over the River Noe at Kilhill Bridge. Take the first turn right along a tree lined drive, following the river. Bear left in front of the house. On your right climb the stone steps and go over a stile This leads to field paths by the river as far as the A625, along which it is only a short distance on your left (better on the pavement on the far side) to the Hope Station Road (the station is signposted). Go up through the car park to the station gate.