Strenuous Leader : no leader for this group Distance : tbc
A map will be provided for this group to come up with their own walk.
Moderate Leader: Laura Distance : 7.5 miles
We leave the coach park and toilets and pick up the Sett Valley trail, along the River Sett. This tree lined path is nice and flat and was once the old railway line. On arrival at Birch Vale, we walk briefly over the river and pick up the Pennine Bridleway towards Lantern Pike, so it is a long steady ascent along the edge of the moors providing spectacular views across the valley.
At Marley Moor we revert to public footpaths and descend to Moor Road. We walk on the road for a couple of hundred yards in order to pick up the moorland route on the other side of the valley.
Nearby, however, there is refreshment trailer in the car park of a closed down pub, if we need this, it is open until 2pm serving very basic hot and cold refreshments. We can divert there, but there are no toilet facilities available.
We then join Chunal Moor, with another steady upward ascent, then Leygatehead Moor and Middle Moor. The paths are narrow and stony in parts, but the views are good, looking around the valley. We come to a crossroads near the Shooting cabin and turn right onto Snake Path which is a bridleway, heading back to down to Hayfield.
Most of the terrain is sandstone, with no mud on a dry day. There are no cattle but expect to walk through grazing sheep. There are only two stiles and a ford. Please note, even on a sunny day it can be cool because you are exposed on the moorland. Total ascent approximately 383 metres, 1256 feet.
Easy Leader: no leader for this group Distance : tbc
Maps will be provided for this group to come up with their own walk or independent activities.
There is a recommended flat route through the Sett Valley and prints of these suggested walks will be provide as required.
NOTES ON THE AREA
The pretty name and rural setting disguise Hayfield’s industrial past; the village once hummed and rattled to the sound of cotton and paper mills, calico printing and dye works. It also resounded to marching feet and cries of protest when in 1830 a mob of 1,000 mill workers gathered to demand a living wage and were dispersed by hussars. Eleven men appeared at Derby Assizes as a result but the cotton industry was in terminal decline and all the anger was in vain.
We ramblers owe much to the famous “mass trepass” of ramblers onto Kinder Scout which took place a century later on 24th April 1932 in order to gain access to the hills. The starting point was Hayfield. It was a peaceful protest, but politically explosive. About 500 walkers took part, climbing the public footpath out of Hayfield to William Clough. A brief scuffle took place when the protestors left the path and were met by a group of gamekeepers on Sandy Heys, but there was no real confrontation and nobody bothered to trespass to the top of Kinder. Even so, six protestors were arrested and thrown into the old Hayfield lock-up on Market Street. They duly appeared at Derby Assizes and were sentenced to up to six months in gaol, which resulted in a publicity bonanza for the ramblers and ensured a place in history for Hayfield and the “right to roam”.
Despite the occasional flurries of excitement, Hayfield is now a peaceful little village, catering for tourists of all kinds. Serious walkers head east out of the village, up and over the green foothills to the russet expanse of the Kinder plateau. Families and easier-going ramblers head west along the Sett Valley Trail towards New Mills. The car park at the start of this three-mile trail, separated from the main village by the A624, was once the railway station, and the trail itself follows the course of the single-track line. In its heyday thousands of day visitors arrived here from Manchester via the New Mills branch line. Hayfield marked the end of the mill towns and the start of the countryside.
The Kinder Downfall is often a focus for ramblers on Kinder Scout – and rightly so – a chasm of dark gritstone topped by blocks and flattened boulders into which the peaty waters of the Kinder River plunge. If a west or south-westerly gale happens to be blowing, you may witness the waterfall being blasted back in a plume of spray, drenching passers-by above! Equally spectacular are the effects of prolonged freezing when the cascade attracts ice climbers.