GPX File Here
Viewranger File Here
After a overnight stay sleeping in my car at The Olde Cheshire Cheese pub car park on Monday the 28th June 2021, I awoke to get ready for the walk to Chrome Hill. Been looking at this walk for ages, so it felt good to be finely doing it!
So after breakfast, I left the car park and walked up Church Street and onto Top o' Th' edge and then out into open fields beyond.
Further up I cross Beggars Bridge over the River Dove.
Ahead I can see the hills of High Wheeldon. I would like to return one day to climb all these hills!
I exit out onto a road and turn left to follow this up past a farm.
I can now see Hitter Hill on my right, another to climb in the future.
At the end of the road I turn left and then right after a short way just past the Grey Telephone Box.
I now follow this track along, the views are just starting to get better and better!
I am unknowingly walking alongside Parkhouse Hill, I was hoping to climb this. I had no idea the GPX route I downloaded avoided going up the hill. That'll teach me not to plot my own route like I normally do! I will definitely have to return now!
I start the ascent of Chrome Hill and just at this point the sun decided to come out fully just to make the climb harder!
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| Looking back to Parkhouse Hill, it really does look a cracker of a hill! |
As I climb the sheep on the hill take much interest in watching me, probably having a chuckle at the fat man attempting the hill.
I stop for another look back from Chrome Hill back to Parkhouse Hill.
Parkhouse Hill is a small but distinctive hill in the Peak District National Park in the English county of Derbyshire. It lies on the north side of the River Dove, close to the border with Staffordshire.
Geologically, the hill is the remains of an atoll (a 'reef knoll') which is believed to have existed during the Carboniferous period when what is now the Peak District was covered by a tropical sea. Together with its higher but less distinctive neighbour, Chrome Hill, it forms the Chrome and Parkhouse Hills SSSI, cited for their geology and limestone flora.
For many years access to Parkhouse Hill was difficult, as there was no right of way to the summit. Access is now possible under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, as the hill is a designated access area.
In 1997, the writer Jeff Kent discovered that a double sunset could be seen against Parkhouse Hill from nearby Glutton Grange and, two years later, the phenomenon was first captured on film by the photographer Chris Doherty. The occurrence is visible in good weather in late March, early April and September, when the sun sets just to the south of the summit of the hill, begins to re-emerge almost immediately afterwards from its steep northern slope before fully reappearing and later sets for a second and final time at the foot of the hill. The precise event and its location are described in Kent's book The Mysterious Double Sunset.
I stop halfway up the hill in the shade of a tree, thankful to be out of the sun for a bit and to take on some water.
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| View to Parkhouse Hill |
After many false summits, I finally reach the summit ,where I stop to eat and drink some and soak in the amazing views. Not a sound up here, so peaceful!
Chrome Hill is a limestone reef knoll in Derbyshire, in the upper Dove valley beside the border with Staffordshire.
Chrome Hill contains good exposures of Gigantoproductus fossils; it is part of a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest which makes it an offence for visitors to remove geological samples.
After a rest I leave the summit, shame as I could have stayed here all day, but there's a walk to be done and I needed to be home to watch the England v Germany Euro 20 football game, so I cracked on!
I made my way down the slippery rocks of Chrome Hill vey carefully, don't need a twisted ankle or worse here.
Just at the bottom of the hill slip and end up in the mud, but no harm done and no-one to witness and dent my pride!
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| Looking back to Chrome Hill, like a dragon sleeping on the hillside. |
I climb up Tor Rock on the other side.
I am now up on top of Tor Rock after a small climb.
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| Beautiful Thistle Flower atop Tor Rock |
I now make my way across Stoop Farm and watch the lambs running to their mothers and drinking her milk with tails a wagging.
Still so peaceful, not a person seen, just the baaing of lambs and birdsong, Bliss!
I can still Chrome Hill behind me and its amazing to think I was just sitting up on top of that amazing hill, I finally made it here!
The path take a curve and I now pass through Booth Farm.
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| Beautiful foxgloves are a plenty by Booth Farm. |
I reach the spot above and the path splits, one climbs and the other descends. Its downwards I go.
I follow the path as it continues to curve and Parkhouse Hill comes back into view again.
The Chrome Hill also makes another appearance as the path straightens out.
The path now takes me down into Hollinsclough.
Hollinsclough is on the upper reaches of the River Dove, at one end of a level area between the Dove and the River Manifold, not far from their sources on the eastern side of Axe Edge Moor. Here the Manifold flows through moorland on sandstone and various gritstones, before a conspicuous change at Hulme End, about 6 miles downstream, when the underlying rock changes to limestone. For all its length, the Dove marks the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Not far downstream from Hollinsclough the Dove enters the limestone valley that ends in the famous Dovedale.
The Church of St Agnes, built as a Chapel of Ease in 1840 when Hollinsclough was in the parish of Quornford, is now linked with the parish of Longnor, about 2 miles east. The church has been abandoned for worship, and is now used as a residential centre for visitors to the Peak District.
I follow my route, past a road closed sign and then the path is blocked by two huge boulders! But this is the route I have plotted so I climb over the boulders and carry on hoping I won't need to double back on myself.
I follow the path up Limer Rake, and have to duck under a fallen tree.
Limer Rake is a walled lane that traverses a hillside above Hollinsclough. Steep, loose and rocky at the top, it soon eases to often-rutted doubletrack before gently spilling out into the centre of Hollinsclough.
I stop for a breather beneath a shady tree before reaching the top and past another two boulders.
Swan Rake and Limer Rake descend from the Staffordshire moorlands near Longnor to the small village of Hollinsclough by the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border. Classed as ORPAs (other routes with public access), they have rights of way for walkers, horse riders, cyclists and motorised vehicles, but have been subject to rolling 18 month emergency closure orders since February 2017 due to the perceived risk to users. You can read more about the closures here.
“…general usage and the continued deterioration of the routes (which) led to the County Council, as the Highway Authority, concluding that the risk to users was too great to allow use of the two routes in their current state, requiring the Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) to be implemented.”
“…all public use on the parts of the said highway…should be prohibited by reason of the likelihood of danger to users of the said highway…No member of the public shall, by whatever means, whether on foot, horseback, in a vehicle or otherwise, proceed or have access…” – Staffordshire County Council.
I follow the road for a short way before taking a overgrown footpath that wet from last nights rain and the bottom of trousers are getting wet, but I know they'd soon dry once out of the field and back in full sun.
I leave the field and follow a road downhill pass The New Farm.
I cross the River Manifold and up to a road where I turn left and follow for a while before taking another footpath on my left and over fields.
The path eventually leads me back into Longnor and pass Huts In the Peaks on Gauledge Lane.
Longnor is a village in the Staffordshire Peak District, England. The settlement dates from early times, the first recorded church building being in the Middle Ages. The village was named Longenalre in the Domesday Book. Located on a major crossroads, Longnor was a significant market town in the 18th century. It lies on the north bank of the River Manifold, on a limestone ridge between the Manifold and the River Dove.
Records of the village's early history have been lost, but there is evidence of activity in the area from around 700AD. Longnor is listed in the Great Domesday Book of 1086 as Longenalre. It is distinguished from the other modern Longnor near Shrewsbury which is in the Domesday Book as Lege. According to local legend the village was burned during the reign of William II as a punishment for the poaching of deer from the forests around Leek
The first written record cites the founding of St Bartholomew's Church in 1223 on the site of the present 18th century parish church, and over the next two centuries there were around 20 homes in the village.
The 1787 Cary map of Staffordshire shows the village on a major crossroads. Cary wrote the name LONGNOR rather than Longnor, a style shared only with Leek and Cheadle in Staffordshire north of Stafford and The Potteries. This implies that Longnor was then a market town of some significance.
Some of the TV series Peak Practice was recorded here.
In episode 5 of the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Longnor was used for shots of the fictitious village of Lambton, where Elizabeth Bennet and her aunt and uncle stay during their visit to Derbyshire.
After 8 and a half mile walk I make it back to The Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub for a pint to Robinsons Dizzy Blonde before the drive home!
