If you’d never ridden in the dark Peak and what you were looking for was the most enjoyment from big, fast, technical, rocky descents, would you be more enthusiastic about the classic Kinder loop (and if so which direction) or the classic Lady Bower figure of 8?

Or would it be something else entirely?

Obviously the question is put hypothetically to those of you that know the Peak reasonably well!

steer clear of whinston lee tor as it will be piss wet thru and a bog fest. I would aim for Stanage

Weather here for the last week has been atrocious and a lot of the trails round Hayfield way (Rushup Edge and Mam Tor in particular) were boggy even last weekend, it’ll be a total mudbath by now.

It’s still raining now. 🙁

As r_r says, Whinstone Lee Tor will be largely unrideable I’d have thought.

yep you’ll be wanting your hard wearing trails. jacobs will be ok, the run up to the back wet though, as will the pennine bridleway.

how about the tissington trail 😈

Sounds like it will be either the west side loop of Lady Bower figure of 8 only or the Classic Kinder loop then.

Bearing in mind the weather, I’d be inclined to get over Three Shires Head way. There are some ace rocky trails in and out of the packhorse bridge that are ride-able year-round. Tie it in with a trip into the White Peak for some very rocky bits around Hollinsclough and you’ll be laughing. You probably won’t see another MTBer, but you might see some MXers. This is my favourite area of the Peak when the weather is soggy and if fortunately very close to me 😀

(Tick) if my weekend plans fall through.

where is hollinsclough area up by 3 shires?

A ladybower loop, but extended to pick up the Beast and Cavedale and Potato Alley rather than heading over Whinstone which will be a sandy brake-pad-grinding swamp.

You’ve gotta do the Beast at least! 🙂

A ladybower loop, but extended to pick up the Beast and Cavedale and Potato Alley rather than heading over Whinstone which will be a sandy brake-pad-grinding swamp.

You’ve gotta do the Beast at least!

Pook, this sounds good. Fancy leading it on Sunday?

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stilltortoise – Member

Bearing in mind the weather, I’d be inclined to get over Three Shires Head way. There are some ace rocky trails in and out of the packhorse bridge that are ride-able year-round. Tie it in with a trip into the White Peak for some very rocky bits around Hollinsclough and you’ll be laughing. You probably won’t see another MTBer, but you might see some MXers. This is my favourite area of the Peak when the weather is soggy and if fortunately very close to me
Posted 1 hour ago # Report-Post

do you have a route in mind for this i may head up that way on saturday if so??

where the hell is potato valley??

yeah im interested in this route too! let us know if you get one RR!

potato alley – from hope cross down to the a57 (blackley hay)

blackley clough? you mean instead of going down the beast straight on if your coming up roman road? never known it as that before, if were on about the same place of course 😆

yes its the same place and potato alley is Blackley hey, Blackley clough is before it (the gate/river before the descent starts some 3-400 yards on.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=415060&y=388810&z=120&sv=415060,388810&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=549&ax=415060&ay=388810&lm=0

My usual Winter Dark Peak route would be:

Hope > Broken Road > Mam Nick > Greenlands > Hollins Cross > Backtor Farm > Jagger’s Clough > Blackley Clough > Rowlee Farm > Lockerbrook > Fairholmes > Hagg Side > Hagg Farm > Haggwater bridge > Wooler Knoll > Roman Road > Hope.

For extra miles instead of Woller Knoll you could go Yorkshire Bridge > Aston > Hope Brink (but up Hope Brink will be a muddy slog).

The especially keen could start with a Pindale > Cavedale extension.

(yes I know, no Beast but I prefer Blackley Clough, the Beast is (IMO) missable once you’ve done it a couple of times)

Sorry mate, just remembered I got your text when doing SIY and didn’t reply!

As mentioned it’s a bit moist. See if Souter can show you the 4 and a half dales route in the white peak

GT.. not been ignoring you… bit busy in Irlam the last few days..!

not around at all this weekend sadly, if I were you I’d do the Edale loop Hayfield-mount famine-south head-Roych Clough, up to the castleton road, lords seat, down to edale then up jacobs ladder and back down to Hayfield

The 5 dales in white peak will also be a complete bog fest so I’ll be avoiding that for a few months!

for those of you interested in 3 Shires Head, the grid reference is 009 685 (marked Panniers Pool on the 1:25,000 OS map). The bridleway coming in from the north crosses a damp field before getting to a short but sweet fast rocky bit, but the two trails coming in from the south are both worth going up and down. There’s good fun links south to Flash/Gradbach and to the north to Danebower Hollow (where you can link in to Buxton routes) but I particularly like the descent to the NW that goes down Cumberland Brook to Wildboarclough. From here you can easily razz around Macc Forest, but unless you go back up Cumberland Brook it’s a nasty road climb back out again.

The track over Midgley Hill is a very pleasant if easy way to link Gradbach to the Congleton Road (and hence Wildboarclough) and there’s some good stuff to the south in and around Gradbach, but this is harder to link into a good loop.

The Hollinsclough fun stuff is a road link to the east, but it’s close enough and worth doing and all marked on the OS map. Some of the descents look too short to bother with on the map, but persevere ‘cos they offer a challenge. It’s a bit like a mini Derwent valley in that you can feel like you’re going up and down the same hills over and over, but entertaining none-the-less.

I hope this is enough to inspire and help…

Pook, the above is what I’ve been trying to work into a Pootle. The problem is I always end up being too ambitious in what can be done in a typical pootle day. You’ll always end up doing more road-work than around Derwent valley, but some of the riding is really good fun.

any routes to link in this hollinsclough from 3 shires way stilltortoise? do you have a .gpx for it some where? im toying with this or hayfield this weekend! wouldnt mind a big old loop around 3 shires if i can tag on a bit more

No .gpx I’m afraid. It really isn’t a big road link to join the trails out of 3 Shires Head to the Hollinsclough area. There is a trail that loops to the south from 3 Shires and then back north to Hawk’s nest that you can then use to climb up and out to a minor lane to the A53. It’s a short hop straight over the A53 to pick up the lanes that will drop you in one of the various bridleways/permitted routes in and around Hollinsclough. The problem is that from Hawk’s nest north can get very soggy unlike most of the trails around there that are pretty rocky and dry.

Personally if I were linking the two I’d start in Hollinsclough then climb up the road to cross the A53 and reverse what I described above. The short section of wet/mud will be tolerable and fun(!) downhill and get you into 3 Shires.

I would offer to show you but I don’t think I’m riding this weekend, or at least nothing of any length

no worries my good man, cheers for the info, not to familiar with anything out towards hollinsclough way to be honest, i have just done a google search for hollinsclough mtb, and its thrown up a .gpx

http://www.mountainbikerides.co.uk/routes/1-the-peak-district/13-hollinsclough.html

does that look anything like what your on about? its about 25 miles which is pretty good! looks like a fair bit of road but thats cool….

let us know what you think

didzy what day you thinking of riding? Mind if i tag on, that way at least we would be in a pair if we got lost!!

it would only be sunday for me RR, not sure on a exact time yet either, probably late morning early afternoon about 11-12ish? you thinkin that route above i posted? done most of that before so we wouldnt get that lost, however not sure on some it going out towards hollinsclough at all, dont think ive ever ridden down that way

weather look super shite for sunday – sleet!!

email your contact details just in case

email in profile

email sent! im up for it if weather holds out, so yeah more than welcome to tag along matey!

When riding between Hollinsclough and Three Shires Head I often use the track out of Knotbury to link them up.

On a longer ride I often link up 3-shires head with Gradbach and the bridleway down off the Roaches at Roach End.

The routes mentioned by stilltortoise are excellent options though.

Fancy Jacobs Ladder on saturday myself. Let’s hope is batters it down, the wetter the better.

cuckoo – Member
When riding between Hollinsclough and Three Shires Head I often use the track out of Knotbury to link them up.

On a longer ride I often link up 3-shires head with Gradbach and the bridleway down off the Roaches at Roach End.

The routes mentioned by stilltortoise are excellent options though.

cuckoo – do you have any routes on .gpx or a map i can view it on? really intruiged heard good things about gradbach but no idea how to tie it all on to a 3shires route? i know in and around the 3 shires area so if could plot us the rest of it on bikehike or something from 3 shires that would be brill 🙂

especially gradbach – if you have anything worthwhile please let me know, always looking for new stuff up that way!

Didzy that link looks about right, but don’t bother trying to go any further east than Hollinsclough village itself. It’s pretty road riding, but the off-road from Longnor will be wet grassy slog. Two options really. Start and finish in Hollinsclough, bearing in mind the only bridleway that is ride-able all the way up is the one heading from the village NW to Booth Farm. The others will all need some pushing unless you’re very talented. The other option is to make a circuit that takes in the Macclesfield Old Road from Buxton up and over to Derbyshire Bridge in either direction. That’s a nice way of linking Hollinsclough with Three Shires in a good value loop. If doing this keep heading north from Booth Farm on the road and aim for the bridleway you can just see at the top centre of the map you linked to. That’ll take you to Buxton (Harpur Hill) from where you can make your way to the track out of Buxton to Derbyshire Bridge, up to Cat and Fiddle then along the moors to the Congleton Road then pick up one of the trails I mentioned above. All good stuff and all ride-able in rainy weather. Great views if the sun comes out too.

stilltortoise – I’d be interested in a pootle around Macc in the future. I know the area around 3 shires well.
Its quite demanding fitness wise, so to do it at a steady pace would suit me.

Sorry geetee1972 that we’re not around for a ride this Saturday, but you’re welcome to pop round for a brew.

PS Cuckoo is right, the bridleway from Roach End is good, but it will be boggy in places climbing back out the other side and – without getting cheeky – it is hard to link it in with anything else (but the cheeky stuff IS good)

Bunnyhop, you’re welcome. I have two little kiddies so big rides are rare, but being local to me it is easier to get clearance if you know what I mean. Likewise, let me know if you get out

Sorry Didzy but I am an old fashioned OS map and compass man.

I should point out that I am not a local to this area (it is just under an hours drive away) and there will be others on here that will have a much better knowledge than me (especially of cheeky routes).

It is worth noting that some of the routes around Gradbach that are marked as footpaths on the OS survey map appear (to me at least) to be bridleways or permissive bridleways on the ground.

You probably know this route already but if you go down past the youth hostel and cross Black Brook turning right and uphill at the crossroads near the brook, through Gradbach wood near Lud’s Church up and over then down past Park House round the back of Swythamley Park and out to the road it is actually a bridleway but all marked as footpath on the OS map (my map at least).

Turning left at the road junction, past the former church and turning left onto the minor road through the farm provides a quiet climb to the end of the lane where a green lane (muddy) links up to just below Roach End. There is then an excellent singletrack descent on the bridleway (unfortunately now a gate has interupted the flow half way down) to run alongside Black brook before a muddy escape to join the road down from the Winking Man at a sharp turn.

A lot of road work is then involved to get over to Hollinsclough (I normally take the quiet lane through Dun’s Cow Grove).

To get over to Gradbach from the 3-Shires area I normally go down Cumberland Brook then take the minor road climbing back to the A54. Turn right along an unfortunate section on the A54 then take the green lane on the left climbing and then descending towards Gradbach. I have always (frustratingly) gone down the road to the youth hostel but on the map there may be a better (cheeky alternative).

The other thing worth noting is when I have ridden this in the past I tend to ride it on dry or frosty days. The thought of doing this route on the upcoming weekend is not a pleasant one! Maybe the Jacobs/Hayfield route would be more suitable!

thanks for the input guys, appreciated 🙂

im not familiar with gradbach in the slightest so unfortunately trying to follow those (albeit great detailed) instructions, i havent got a clue as to where any of that is 🙁 i am genuinely intrugied as there sounds like there is a lot more exploring to be done and by the sounds some great cheeky bits in there!

if any one does have a .gpx (as i have a garmin dakota) of a similar route (linking gradbach to 3 shires or similar) or knows the route cuckoo etc is on about and doesnt mind plotting one for me on bikehike etc that would be truly appreciated and muchos kudos to that person, including what you would call the best bits (cheeky) regardless of weather (ill go even if its a bogfest 🙂 )

if one of you legendary guys would do that ill go and havea go at it sunday!

so 3 shires out to gradbach and back to 3 shires in a loop somehow?

if i was any good with a map, id use cuckoos excellent instructions to plot it but it makes no sense to me as i dont know the area at all 🙁