England - Peak District - Perry Dale Tale

Walk Summary

A starter of Winnats Pass; a main course of the pretty Perry Dale and Roych Clough, and a desert of Rushup Edge, with paragliders for entertainment. A very super walk.

Date: 18/09/2021

Length: 11.31 miles

Height Gain: 455 m

Terrain: National Trail, boggy paths, grassy path, pathless moor, stony track, lightly used roads

Navagation: Reasonable. Route goes across some featureless moor and requires map and compass skills (instructions noted on map)

Start: Parking near Windy Knoll at the top of Winnats Pass

Route: Winnats Pass, Peak Forest, Perry Dale, Pennine Bridleway, Brown Knoll, Rushup Edge

Map: OL1 Dark Peak Area, OL24 White Peak Area

Weather: Sunny

Walkers: Nun, Calse, Mo

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Winnats Pass

Captain's Log

Winnats Pass

The sun was dazzling as we made our way across to Winnats Pass from Windy Knoll. Winnats Pass is an out-and-back, optional part of today's route, but it is well worth the additional effort. In fact the views are probably the best of the day. From the top of Winnats Pass the hillside itself mad shadows in the valley below. The Winnats name is a corruption of 'wind gates' and I can confirm it is well named. It was a struggle to draw ourselves away from such scenery, but we managed to do it and headed back to Windy Knoll.

Southdowns Or Rylands?

Sheep Conundrum In Perry Dale

There was some field hopping to get to Perry Dale. The fields are high and exposed and it can feel bitterly cold, but today was sunny with a light breeze. There are quite a few relics from old mines in this area as well as the huge (now disused) Eldon Quarry. We dropped down to Peak Forest and then followed the narrow road along Perry Dale. This road forms part of the Pennine Bridleway and we followed it northwards. In one of the fields in Perry Dale we saw some unusual sheep. I posted a photo on a local Facebook group: one farmer though they were Southdowns and another thought they were Rylands. Whatever they were, they certainly looked a bit odd.

Perry Dale Jackdaw

Roych Clough

It is quite a long stretch of road through Perrry Dale, through Perry Foot and up to the Sheffield Road, but there is hardly any traffic and it is very picturesque. We said hello to a llama along the way. After hitting the Sheffield Road we continued along a stony track that was a continuation of the Pennine Bridleway. The ventilation shaft for the Sheffield-Manchester railway tunnel could be seen up on the hillside to the right. Our route eventually went past that, but first we proceeded along the Pennine Bridleway until we got to the pretty Roych Clough. Rather than descending to the bottom of the clough we hopped over a stile and headed on a rough bearing to the railway ventilation shaft that we had spotted earlier. Some repairs were in operation since it was surrounded by scaffolding.

Rushup Edge Paraglider And Crow

Paragliders Of Rushup Edge

We took a bearing to get on to the Brown Knoll slabbed path that runs to Rushup Edge. We could see many specks in the sky over Rushup Edge. As we got closer we could see that they were paragliders. There must have been a couple of dozen altogether. They used the upward draft from Rushup Edge to soar along to Mam Tor and then back again. Some even went as far as the top of Winnats Pass. They provided great entertainment, some getting quite close to the top of the edge. I was photographing one of the paragliders, who I saw, when I zoomed in, was filming me. The final part of Rushup Edge has great views down into Edale and also on the other side of the valley towards Winnats Pass. When we reached the end of Rushup Edge we picked up the masses who were either going up Mam Tor or coming down after having summitted.

A short walk over Windy Knoll brought us back to the car and the conclusion of an entertaining and picturesque walk.

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