Avoiding the Black Stuff

About trip

Bleaklow's€™ not so much a hill, more a vast expanse of bare black peat, where even the toughest moor grasses can’t take root. Wainwright once wrote that nobody loved the place, and those who got on it were glad to get off. But there'€™s another side to Bleaklow. There are corners where bilberries grow thick round fascinating rock sculptures; where heather, bracken and grass weave a colourful quilt draped beneath wide skies. Places like Grinah Stones, Yellowslacks and Shepherd’s Meeting Stones are all remote, but they’re dramatic places, far superior to anything seen on the popular routes. Bleaklow’s true top lies in the midst of the mires, but only a few feet lower is Higher Shelf Stones, a bold summit with a distinctive mountain shape – and some good crags. Climb Higher Shelf Stones from Old Glossop, and you’ll see the best of Bleaklow Old Glossop. Time has been kind to Old Glossop. Planners and industrialists of the 19th and 20th centuries built their shops and factories further west, leaving the old quarter untouched. Here 17th-century cottages of darkened gritstone line cobbled streets, overlooked by the spired All Saints Church. Shepley Street takes you into the hills, and it’s not long before you’re climbing the heathery spur of Lightside and looking across the rocky ravine of Yellowslacks. A fine path develops on the cliff-edge before entering the confines of Dowstone Clough, which clambers towards Higher Shelf Stones. Eventually the clough shallows and the stream becomes a trickle in the peat, leaving you to find your own way. Sandy channels, known as groughs, lead you southwards. Higher Shelf Stones: Suddenly, the peat ends and the trig point appears. From the summit rocks you look down on the deep twisting clough of Shelf Brook and out across the plains of Manchester to the shadowy hills of North Wales. It’s time to leave the high moors.There’s a faint path across a grassy spur descending into Shelf Brook’s clough, where you join the Doctor’s Gate track. This gets its name from John Talbot, the Vicar of Glossop 1450–94, who often used the road to visit his father in Sheffield. His trips were worthy of note because he was in fact the illegitimate son of the very powerful, Earl of Shrewsbury. Much earlier, the old highway was used by Roman troops marching between their forts at Navio (Brough, near Hope) and Melandra (Glossop). We follow their footsteps as the paved track twists through the clough, by the rounded Shire Hill and back to Old Glossop. While you're there: Glossop is a fascinating, bustling town to visit. It’s known locally as Howard’s Town in tribute to its19th-century benefactors. Bernard Edward Howard, the 12th Duke of Norfolk, was one of the founders of the first cotton mills in the area. By 1831 there were 30 in the town. At this time the grand town hall, the Square and the Roman Catholic church were built. You can find out more about the own and it’s history at the Heritage Centre in Henry Street. Where to eat and drink: The small café in Manor Park sells ice creams and snacks throughout the summer season. For more substantial fare, visit The Queens on Shepley Street in Old Glossop, which serves a good selection of bar and restaurant meals daily, plus a range of real ales and coffees. What to look out for: East of the summit of Higher Shelf Stones look for the remains of a US Air Force Superfortress bomber, which crashed here in 1948 killing its crew. Walkers have reported seeing ghosts near the site. From here you can detour round the edge of the clough to the rock outcrops on James’s Thorn, where there’s another plane wreck. A small monument with a pile of wreckage marks the place where, on 18 May 1945, a Canadian Lancaster bomber crashed Directions: From the car park, walk through Manor Park and then turn left along Manor Park Road into Old Glossop. Turn right along Shepley Street, passing the factory to the bus turning circle. Here a farm track continues eastwards, with the partially wooded dome of Shire Hill on the right and the pine and oak-clad slopes of Edge Plantation on the left. 2 Leave the track at a ladder stile. Cross the stile on to a path, confined at first by a fence and dry-stone wall, that climbs north-east on a pastured spur overlooking the curiously named but pleasant craggy valley of Shittern Clough. In the upper reaches and beyond a second ladder stile, the now well-defined path continues the climb through bilberry bushes and then over the heather of Upper Lightside. 3 A narrow path switches to the spur’s southern brow high above Yellowslacks Brook. A dilapidated wire fence comes in from the right-hand side of it before joining the cliff edges of Yellowslacks and Dog Rock. The crags close in to form the rugged channel of Dowstone Clough. The path, now intermittent, stays close to the stream and keeps away from the peat hags. 4 As the clough shallows and the stream divides among a bed of rushes (grid ref 089954), aim for Higher Shelf Stones by crossing the main stream and following its southbound tributary – just follow the bootprints along its sandy bed, which snakes through a complex of peat hags in a southbound direction. Near the summit of Higher Shelf Stones the channel shallows and widens then, suddenly, the trig point rises from a grassy plinth ahead. 5 From Higher Shelf Stones, trace the brow of Shelf Moor towards Lower Shelf Stones then on to James’s Thorn, on a narrow path, but circumvent the naked peat that proliferates on the left. A prominent grassy channel descends just north of west and forms a reliable and reasonably dry course down over Shelf Moor to a boulder strewn edge above Ferny Hole. 6 From here down to the Doctor’s Gate path, soon visible far below, follow a faint but discernible path that weaves its way down the rough hillside east of Shelf Benches. Towards the bottom, it merges with a wider, grassy track and joins Doctor’s Gate by a stone barn. Continue down the valley. 7 Doctor’s Gate meanders through the moorland clough of Shelf Brook before passing Mossy Lea Farm. Continue straight on to join the outward route at the foot of Lightside and brings you back to Old Glossop.