I've been riding round The Peak for a fair while now and would like to link Stanage Edge to Somewhere on the Ladybower loop.

I was looking at carrying on from Stanage Edge along the Shefield Country Walk and picking up the A57 at Moscar Lodge, turning left, A57 for about a mile and then right at Cutthroat Bridge onto the track upto Whinstone Lee. Another option was down past Bolehill wood and along the new road towards the dam at the bottom of Ladybower and then right along through the wood behind the fishery and out near The Ladybower Inn.

So –
1) Can you ride along the Shefield Country Walk route and if you can whats it like?

2) Whats the route past Bolehill wood etc like?

3) Any other routes I've not thought of

Cheers

Head down the rocky causeway off Stanage Edge towards Hope Valley, over the cattle grid at the car park, follow the road and take the first right turn, uphill, downhill, uphill again then take a left turn by a copse of trees down Bamford Clough (check your brakes are working well before going down there!) turn right at the bottom of Bamford Clough and follow the road to Ladybower dam wall. Bamford Clough is silly steep and fast and the surface is interesting in places. 😀

a vote for suggestion by ap or you can turn left on tarmac then right signposted north lees and take hurstclough lane a byway down into bamford as an alternative

the continuation along the edge to the A57 is popular but not legal – i think SFB once posted a pic that resulted in some law abiding soul threatening to hand him over to the peak park board for a good whipping based on the evidence

I'd avoid the FP's lots of militant ramblers up there waiting for an excuse to complain about MTBers. Have a look in the VG book for legit route ideas. But I usually treat Stanage as a separate ride. Redmires, Stanage pole, Stanage Plantation, road across Burbage Moor to Lady Canning Plantation, Blacka Moor, Houndkirk, Ringinglow and back to Redmires.

"or you can turn left on tarmac then right signposted north lees and take hurstclough lane a byway down into bamford as an alternative"

good suggestion there, that's an interesting one too. very eroded old road surface on fast corners is fun 😀

Agreed with the twisty byway that drops into Bamford, that's a good decent in place of using the roads. Might be a good way to gain altitude too, though I've never ridden it that way.

I have to just recommend that you avoid at all costs climbing Bamford Clough unless you're a complete sadist. It's absolute torture.

They hold a hill climb event on it occassionally – the entrants must be mental. If the lung and leg punishing doesn't get you, the constant looping out backwards will. Horrendous.

Thanks for the replies, I did think that The Shefield Country Walk was going to be a No-No, kinda gives it away in it's title but just had to ask as I have seen people riding along it in the past.

@thefallguy – Yeah I know that route and am looking to add Ladybower onto it.

I'll try the suggestion of the twisty byway that drops into Bamford as that sounds fun and keeps you off the roads.

Cheers

bamford clough is good, but there's another track which goes into bamford. It is pretty heavily rutted, lots of big berms and and a fallen tree every now and again. I can't remember what it's called, but it ends up at the 'triangle-about' opposite the shops

@sax_widby – I think thats "Hurstclough Lane" looking at the OS, going to have a look at the choices in the next few weeks.