This was a walk that I devised to cover a few of the areas around Kinder Scout that I hadn’t done before. After a fairly straight-forward and non-eventful drive there, I parked on the side-of-the-road parking area at Chunal and immediately proceeded with the walk up the Hill to Chunal Moor.

It didn’t take long before I’d reached the trig pillar of Harry Hut. It was turning into a fine day with the sun out and the sky mainly blue, and so the views were rather enjoyable. Glossop is visible to the north, and the gritstone edge of Coombes Rocks is visible to the west. Next on the agenda was Burnt Hill, which lay directly south. Unfortunately, a clough separates Burnt Hill from Harry Hut and so a longer route is required to link the two together. I followed the path towards Mill Hill until I met the paved footpath that heads back to the top of Burnt Hill. It’s not really entirely necessary to do this unless you’re obsessed with grabbing every hill summit available. Burnt Hill isn’t actually classed as an official hill (ie it doesn’t appear in the Database of British Hills) but it did look to be an interesting viewpoint and I just felt the need to have a look. A quick photo from the Burnt Hill summit and I retraced my steps, following the path as far as Mill Hill.

Mill Hill lies on the Pennine Way and its eastern slopes provide the source of the River Ashop. Looming to the south-east is Kinder Scouts steep northwest corner. This would be the way a walker would go should he be following the Pennine Way. Turning slightly to the left brings Kinder Scouts northern edge and Black Ashop Moor into view. As tempting as it was to continue onto Kinder, the route first called for a descent back down to lower ground. Between Mill Hill and Kinder Scout lies the head of William Clough. This clough was used to access Kinder Scout from Bowden Bridge during the Kinder Scout mass trespass of 1932. I turned into the clough and began the pleasant descent down towards Kinder Reservoir.

The route doesn’t quite make it as far as the reservoir. At the bottom of the clough, I crossed the bridge and immediately began ascending again. This path would lead up to Kinders edge again at Sandy Heys. A lot of huffing and puffing was involved here as this turned out to be a very steep and arduous ascent. In fact, I’d perhaps go as far as saying that it’s the steepest on Kinder. I may be wrong, but it certainly felt like it at the time. Eventually, I made it up onto the edge where a proper snow covering awaited me rather than the patchy affair I’d been dealing with up to now.

I followed the path around the edge for a short while before venturing into the plateau to find ‘The Edge’ trig pillar. Luckily, somebody else had also recently visited it and so I had a fairly fresh set of footprints to follow through the deep snow. It wasn’t long before I arrived at the site, where I took a few quick snaps before venturing back towards the edge.

I continued around the edge, pausing briefly at Kinder Downfall to view some of the snow and ice formations before heading on past Red Brook and eventually to the Kinder Low trig pillar – a familiar landmark to most who head up from Edale. From the trig pillar, the route continues southwest to Kinderlow End before descending steeply down its slope.

At this point of the walk, I hadn’t really made the progress that I hoped for. Mainly because I’d spent a lifetime faffing around taking about a million photos. Chances of me getting back before darkness were going to be slim unless I pulled my finger out and got a shift on. I followed the footpath across Broad Clough before taking a turn to the left and crossing pastureland on my way to Kinder Reservoir. Once at the reservoir and above the dam, I took a sharp turn to the left and followed a path that led out over Middle Moor and eventually back to Chunal. I managed to get back just in time for it going dark – something that I seem to have made a habit of over winter.

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