Curbar Gap

 

 

 

CURBAR GAP

 

June 28, 2023

 

CURBAR GAP, SWINE STY, WHITE EDGE, A625, TOTLEY TUNNEL AIR VENT, FOX HOUSE INN, LONGSHAW LODGE, LONGSHAW ESTATE, GROUSE INN, FROGGATT EDGE, CURBAR EDGE

 

 

Distance: 11 miles​Ascent/descent: 1,291ft

 

Difiiculty: Easy

 

Weather: Fine, dry and warm. A very few spots of rain

 

Walkers: Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Enright, Mark Gibby, Chris Owen, Dave Willetts, Simon Williams 

 

Apologies: Alan Hart and Alastair Cairns (both in Canada but not together), Cliff Worthington (Majorca), Andy Blease (Valderama), Mike Cassini (France), Dean Taylor (medical appointment), others unknown

 

Leader: Cunliffe​​Diarist: Beal

 

Starting point: Lay-by 400 yards west of Curbar Gap

 

Starting time: ​9.53am​Finishing time:3.05pm

 

     Map by Tom Cunliffe

 

 

If the Wanderers have walked this route before it cannot be found on record and the scenic traverse of White Edge was a new one for most of our number. The extensive network of well-maintained tracks and footpaths of the Longshaw estate also came as a surprise to us. 

 

Tom devised this excellent route which he dubbed the Three Edges Walk for obvious reasons and it is one that should be repeated. One feature of the route was that we had to cross not a single stile throughout the 11 miles. 

 

We were rewarded with magnificent views for many miles all round and the threatened heavy rain and possible storm forecast for early afternoon came to nothing more than a few spots of rain.

 

We left the lay-by where we found ample parking just west of Curbar Gap and climbed the road to reach the gap. Just past the pay-and-display car park on the crest we came to a fingerpost pointing us through a gate to the left towards White Edge. A gentle climb, including a flight of wooden steps, brought us to the start of the edge at Swine Sty. This is the site of a settlement where shale was worked in the Bronze Age to provided primitive jewellery.

       Out in the bush…pic by Tom Cunliffe

 

A short distance in to the climb we spotted a magnificent stag observing us across a wall from the bracken close by on the left. It could have been a 12-pointer, but our party lacked the expertise to be sure.

 

After 30 minutes walking we passed on our right a trig point just 100 yards short of the ridge’s highest point, which at a mere 1,204 feet belies its qualities as a viewpoint. To our right, across the large expanse of Big Moor could be seen buildings marking the outskirts of Sheffield and, further south, Chesterfield.

 

Down to the left we spotted one of our sometime haunts – the Grouse Inn. Indeed White Edge is named after the land-owning White family who in th 19th century cleared the land on which the pub was built.

 

After 63 minutes walking pietime was called in the lee of a stone wall where a path led down on the left towards the said Grouse. We then continued to the end of the ridge at the junction of the A625 and B6054 roads. Our plan here had been to bear left through the Longshaw estate towards our goal of the Fox House Inn. But fearing we would arrive too early Tom decided to put in a loop that saw us head north up the A625 for a few hundred yards before turning right along a track across Totley Moor, with an air vent for the Totley railway tunnel, carrying the Manchester-Sheffield railway line, ahead of us. 

 

Shortly after the vent we turned left along a good bridleway that then crossed the A625 before soon reaching the A6187 just to the right of the Fox House Inn, where we enjoyed refreshments outside. Such are the times that £4-45 for the Moonshine Pale Ale from the nearby Abbeydale Brewery failed to raise eyebrows. But Tom was rather aghast to be charge £1-90 for a packet of ordinary Pipers’ crisps. The landlady did have the good grace to apologise for this.

 

We turned right on leaving the pub and entered the National Trust’s Longshaw estate opposite. We followed a track and soon reached the impressive Longshaw Lodge, where a large party of schoolchildren were picnicking outside.

 

The Lodge, now private apartments, was built as a shooting lodge by the Duke of Rutland in the 1820s. He had bought extensive tracts of Derbyshire after abandoning Haddon Hall near Bakewell, which was to stand empty for 200 years. His main seat was Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire.

 

The Lodge was a military hospital in World War 1 but death duties later forced Duke to sell and it was taken over by Sheffield Corporation before being transferred to the National Trust, who maintain the extensive estate.

 

We made a slight error at the hall, for which your diarist shares responsibility, and veered too far right in the network of paths, but soon corrected this with the help of Tom’s digital device and eventually emerged on the road just short of the Grouse Inn. Four hundred yards further south we crossed the road and took a turning on the left marked Froggatt Edge.

 

A good path took us along the escarpment and Tom declared a lunch stop at a group of rocks with extensive views -including the sight of Chatsworth House to the south. At this point Chris and Mark E absconded, never to be seen again.

 

Resuming, shortly after Froggatt became Curbar Edge we took a signed path through thick bracken on our right to take a tricky descent in to woods. This levelled, and with the crags of the Edge high on our left, emerged on the road just 100 yards below our parking space.

 

Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am from the rough car park in front of the Wheatsheaf in Well Gate, Old Glossop, SK137RS. We will ascend Glossop Low, drop down Torside Clough to the Transpennine Trail and call at the Anchor in Hadfield around 12.30pm. Refreshments later at the Queen’s in Old Glossop.

 

Happy Wandering!