Rowarth

 

March 19, 2025

 

ROWARTH

 

VILLAGE CAR PARK IN ROWARTH, KING’S HEAD CLOUGH FARM, PENNINE BRIDLEWAY, KNARRS FARM, MATLEY MOOR, A624 AT HOLLINWORTH HEAD, CARR MEADOW, MIDDLE MOOR, SHOOTING CABIN, TWENTY TREES, KINDER LODGE IN HAYFIELD, GIGGLE-GAGGLE PATH, HARTHILL FARM, ROWARTH

 

 

Distance: 8.5 miles​

Total ascent/descent: 1,500 ft

 

Difficulty: Moderate

 

Weather: Perfect. Sunshine with light cooling breeze

 

Walkers: Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Mike Cassini, Mark Gibby, Hughie Hardiman, Chris Owen, Greg Owens, Clive Rothel, Simon Williams, Chris Worthington

 

Apologies: Steve Brearley (away), Keith Welsh (Cornwall), Jim Riley (vet’s), Russell Spencer (dog sitting), Alastair Cairns (gardening duties), Tom Cunliffe (dodgy knee)

 

Alternate walker: Jock Rooney with Milly. Non-walking drinker: Alan Hart

 

Leader: Beal​Diarist: Beal

 

Starting point: Village car park, Rowarth

 

Starting time: 9.44am​Finishing time: 2.44pm

 

 

We enjoyed perfect walking weather with almost continuous sunshine for this round of the scenic hills above Rowarth and Hayfield. Ten walkers turned out and were able to join Hughie in celebrating his 61st birthday at the Kinder Lodge in Hayfield.

 

We were also delighted to welcome Alan, who joined us at the midway pub for a pint. Despite his gloomy prognosis from Christie Hospital, he remains admirably positive and of course is keeping us entertained with reminiscences from his colourful journalistic career. We continue to wish him all the best.

 

A slight damper was put on Hughie’s birthday drinks by the always smiling and jovial barman (I think not) at the Kinder Lodge. On our last visit he begrudgingly served teas to those of our members who were not drinking beer. This time they were met with a blank refusal – “this is a bloody pub”. 

 

We gathered in the village car park in the small but pleasant village of Rowarth. We turned right and soon after reaching houses took a lane to the right down towards a ford over a stream.

 

We cut left on to a path following the stream and emerged on to a track where we swung right over a stream ford to reach the bottom of a surfaced road. This climbed quite steeply past Kings Clough Head House and Farm before we turned right up a track signed fo the Pennine Bridleway. This is a 205-mile-long route running between Middleton Top in the White Peak of Derbyshire to Ravenstonedale in Cumbria. It has been specifically designed for horse riders.

 

We soon turned left through a gate on to open heather moorland and climbed gently to reach a gate back on to the road. At a ramshackle building here we went right through a gate in to a field, where we climbed to a stone stile at the top. A path led from here for a short distance before skirting Knarrs Farm to reach a track leading to the Monks’ Road.

 

The road is named after the Cistercian monks of 12thcentury Basingwerk Abbey in North Wales who would travel along it to collect rents from their lands around Glossop and Charlesworth, granted to them by Henry ll.

 

We turned right along this road for around a quarter of a mile before reaching its junction with the busy A624 Buxton to Glossop road at Hollingworth Head. Immediately opposite us was a stile on to open moorland, which we crossed the road to reach.

 

Straight ahead here was an uphill track that would have brought us to Mill Hill, one of the outlying hills of Kinder Scout. Instead we turned right on a downhill path running parallel with the road. This passed a small quarry operated by a local farmer for his drystone walling and went through a gate to drop down to a bridge across the stream of Hollingworth Clough at Carr Meadow.

 

We crossed the bridge and climbed a path at the other side through heather. This was once a narrow path but has now become a popular mountain bike route and has widened dramatically.  

 

At a large cairn on the crest of the climb we paused for pietime in the sunshine with splendid views all round. Continuing, the path dropped to a stony ford over a small stream and climbed up a stone flight to continue across Middle Moor. Soon the distinctive white shooting cabin came into view on our left. This landmark can be seen for miles in many directions.

 

Just after the shooting cabin we reached the Snake Path, the route between Hayfield and the former Snake Inn on the Snake Pass road between Glossop and Sheffield.

 

This path was opened to walkers in 1897 and was one of the few rights-of-way on the private lands of Kinder Scout, owned by the Dukes of Devonshire and now part of the National Trust Kinder estate. A short distance to our left, down beyond the Kinder reservoir was the scene of the famous 1932 Kinder Trespass, where walkers clashed with gamekeepers in a protest that was to do a great deal to further the cause of access to the countryside and later the foundation of the National Parks.

 

We followed the path through a gate leading in to fields, and then downhill past the landmark of a copse of beeches called Twenty Trees to reach Kinder Road in the village of Hayfield. We turned right here downhill and crossed the A624 in the centre of the village to come to the Kinder Lodge, one sadly of a dwindling number of hostelries in the vicinity.

 

Here we were joined by Jock, who had completed a walk on the Sett Valley Trail, and Alan, who enjoyed a well-deserved pint after his latest visit to Christie’s.

 

We left with the friendly barman waving us on our way (no, he didn’t) and turned right and immediately right again in to the village car park. Ahead of us a road led in to a new estate (home of our chum Dean) which we took before soon turning right at a sign for the Calico Trail and the Old School Field. We crossed the infant River Sett and climbed through the field – commonly called the May Queen Field locally – to reach Swallow House Lane.

 

We turned left and at a large pair of gates marking the entrance to the former owner’s house at Slack’s paper mill, turned right down a lane. This soon brought us to some houses, from which the locally-named Giggle-gaggle path crossed a stream and climbed in the direction of Little Hayfield. At a track junction we bore left uphill past houses and crossed a stile where the path narrowed before coming to another stile.

 

Here we followed the edge of the wood to emerge on open moorland with Lantern Pike above us on our left. We climbed a short rise and bore right along a wide grassy track to reach a gate with a five-way sign above it. We followed the track signed Pennine Bridleway and Monks Road for a short distance before turning left towards a house entrance and immediately right over a path across two stiles.

 

The path reached another large stone stile and brought us to Harthill Farm, where we crossed the farmyard to take a track downhill towards the ford we had encountered at the start of our walk. We retraced our steps to our cars nearby. Your diarist was alone in seeking a further refreshment at the nearby splendid Little Mill Inn, but was not offended.

 

Next week’s walk will start at 9.50am from Ashford-in-the-Water on the A6 south of Buxton. There is parking on the road near the church or in the village car park (free with donations) just round the corner. We will walk towards Monsal Head, then drop in to Monsal Dale before heading for Deepdale and climbing to Sheldon for refreshment at the Cock and Pullet. Further refreshments will be available at the Bull’s Head in Ashford.

 

Happy Wandering!