Helen Moat walks the High Peak and Tissington trails, linking the dismantled railway’s flat, gravel pathways with a farm track.
This is an easy, largely level walk along the High Peak and Tissington Trails, the dismantled railway tracks now footpaths, bridleways and cycleways.
There is plenty of evidence along the way of bygone railways: old signals, railway cuttings and bridges.
Linking the trails at the beginning is a short bit of uphill road walking and a rise over stony farm track.
Otherwise, the walk is flat and even underfoot with not a stile in sight. Where the High Peak Trail meets the Tissington Trail, the views over the High Peak to the Staffordshire Moors are stunning.
1. Starting out from Hartington car park (charge), take time to admire the lovely signal box with its beautifully preserved colour-coded levers upstairs. On the ground floor the kiosk sells snacks and ice-cream at busy times.
Leaving the trail for now, take the entrance road down to the B5054. Turn right to head uphill, walking on the grassy verge as it’s quite a busy road. Notice the old limekiln on your right.
2. At a bend in the road, you’ll see a stony limestone farm track heading uphill on your left. Take it, watching your feet on the raised stones.
Called Green Lane, it meets the busy A515 that runs between Buxton and Ashbourne. Cross carefully to continue along Green Lane. Look out for the lovely circular dry-stone wall enclosure on your right.
A short distance on, Green Lane meets the High Peak Trail. Turn left onto the walking, cycling and horse-riding trail. From here the ramble heads northwest, cutting through blasted rock with short sections of tunnels and bridges.
In winter it has the feel of a rainforest, the embankments dripping with ferns, moss and heart’s tongue. In spring and summer, the verges are edged with wildflowers.
The Cromford and High Peak railway ran along this dismantled railway between 1831 and 1967, carrying minerals and goods through the hilly Peak District (parts of the line so steep there were rope-hauled inclines).
3. On reaching the junction with the Tissington Trail, continue on to Parsley Hay, a great spot for a picnic lunch – or a bacon butty from Blueberry Kiosk. Be aware, they are not always open (they tend to let people know on their Facebook page).
It’s worth continuing on a short distance to the kažun, an attractive drystone roundhouse with a circular stone roof.
Beautifully constructed, it’s modelled on a traditional Istrian stone shelter used by Croatian farmers.
The kažun was a gift from Croatia to the Peak District on the country’s accession to the EU – a celebration of a shared tradition in dry-stone building.
4. Retracing your steps to the junction, keep right this time to follow the Tissington Trail. The now dismantled railway was opened in 1899 by the London & North Western Railway, linking Ashbourne with Buxton.
The line was primarily used to transport goods in the area, including locally quarried minerals and farm products such as milk, but was also popular with local people wanting to explore the countryside from the towns – or vice versa.
As with the High Peak Trail, the line closed in 1967. The Tissington Trail has wide-open vistas at this point, contrasting the deep cuttings you’ll have passed through on the High Peak Trail.
There are fantastic views over to the Staffordshire Moors. In front of the moorland, a bump of ‘mini-hills’ rises out of the plateau: reef knolls that formed beneath a tropical ocean in the Carboniferous period, over 300 million years ago. Picture a Peak District of reef and lagoon atolls – it's hard to imagine in the present-day windswept and landlocked Peak District.
The trail makes a wide curve through upland farmland, reaching Hartington Station Car Park as the path starts to straighten out.
Before returning to your car, you can grab an ice-cream from the kiosk (if open) and have another look at the lovely signal box with its Victorian signage announcing ‘Hartington for Dove Dale, Beresford Dale and the Manifold Valley’.
As I finished my ramble, I could almost smell the steam and coal, and hear the swishing of long Victorian skirts as passengers in times of yore stepped out to enjoy a day in the beautiful dales.
COMPASS POINTS
DISTANCE: 4.7 miles
GRID REFERENCE: SK1497 6103
MAP: OS Explorer Leisure 24, The White Peak
DIFFICULTY: easy – flat and even terrain apart from the rise and protruding stones at the beginning of Green Lane
PARKING: Hartington Station Car Park
REFRESHMENTS: Blueberry Kiosk at Parsley Hay and Hartington Station Kiosk (open in good weather and busy periods)
WHEELCHAIR USERS: a there-and-back from Hartington Station to Parsley Hay along the Tissington Trail provides easily negotiated terrain
