Longshaw Limber celebrates the Centenary of the
National Trust. It takes in some of the best that the Peak District has
to offer and yet it starts within 15 minutes of England’s fifth
largest city, Sheffield.
There's plenty on offer – splendid scenery,
haunting moorland, old halls, gritstone edges, a famous village and
4,200ft of ascent.
The walk starts at Longshaw with a panorama of the
country park before climbing up on to White Edge and gritstone Froggatt
Edge where huge half worked millstones lie redundant from a bygone age.
At Froggatt the 17th-century bridge which spans the wide Derwent has
curiously two arches odd in size and odd in shape, and the country
which rises to the heights of Eyam is steeped in tragedy. On the slopes
are Riley Graves (National Trust) where seven of one family in the
plague stricken village were buried in eight days. The climb out of
Eyam to Sir William Hill is rewarded by some outstanding views before a
descent to the sheltered valley of Abney Clough and babbling Highlow
Brook.
Beyond Offerton the broad river Derwent keeps
company until Shatton bridge. There's a steady ascent to Win Hill with
views of Ladybower Reservoir and the Derwent Valley, then Kinder Scout
plateau on the descent to Hope Cross and Haggwater Bridge.
Walking the hilltop beside dark forestry
plantations to Crookhill Farm soon Ashopton Viaduct becomes a feature
of the landscape set against glittering expanses of water. And having
crossed the reservoir a dramatic moorland sometimes associated with
Jane Eyre is traversed near Moscar.
The last leg of the Limber is not without drama
too. A magnificent panorama from the gritstone Stanage Edge, Higger Tor
and Carl Wark, a dark age hill fort that overlooks the Burbage valley
before returning to Longshaw Estate and perhaps a well-earned drink at
nearby historic Fox House Inn.
