Just wondering if anyone’s ridden it before I push up there and am bitterly disappointed. Looks like it has potential on the OS map:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=406080&y=389350&z=120&sv=406080,389350&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=794&ax=406080&ay=389350&lm=0

Walked up it a few times. Wouldn’t dream of trying to ride up. Unless it has changed dramatically you’ll be doing a lot of carrying (and explaining to the red sock brigade why you’re riding on a footpath).

He wants to ride down it.

Narrow with big drops into the clough, particularly the top half and a very popular footpath, so I wouldn’t think about it at weekends unless you like arguments and waiting for crocodiles of walkers.

Otherwise I guess it depends on how good a rider you are. The lower section, from the bottom of the traversey singletrack over from Middle Moor gets ridden a fair bit and is good, but higher up, I don’t think I know anyone who’s ridden it.

What are you hoping it’ll be like?

I’m hoping it’s a craggy, rocky, techy wonderland. Heading over this eveing so hopefully crowds shouldn’t be an issue, wouldn’t fancy it during the daytime

Well, it’s steep and loose at the very top, narrow and loose with the odd bit of rock for most of the way, but bits of it are quite narrow and quite exposed in the sense that there’s a big, high-ish penalty drop into the stream below. There are a couple of bits you’d definitely want to carry unless you’re very, very good.

You could ride over up the path that starts opposite the Monk’s Road just above The Grouse and goes up to Mill Hill, it’s mostly slabbed and a very easy angle, then from the bottom of William Clough, hook back over Middle Moor maybe or all sorts of alternatives.

Be interesting to hear what you make of it.

Don’t worry, he is very good, so I’m expecting a clean run. Don’t let me down!

Hmmm… I can think of at least one place which I very much doubt he’ll ride down 😐

Well, it was everything I’d hoped for and more…. like Cut Gate’s angry big brother.

I took the bridleway from Hayfield up to mount famine and got distracted by what looked like some promising singletrack down dimpus clough. It just turned out to be a grassy descent with no particularly interesting features and was not worth the loss in altitude or time but you have to try these things.

So then it was back up Oaken Clough to Edale Cross and then left along Kinder Low, this is where the fun began, loads of big rocks and boulders to pop up onto and off, think Derwent Edge or the top of Cut Gate but bigger and better… millions of line choices and trials type riding to be done, it would be worth spending a day up there just playing around and it seems to go on for miles.

After getting carried away on the rocks up to what I think was Kinder downfall instead of staying on the ridge I somehow ended up in the huge labrinyth of bog which is a bloody scary place to be on your own as the light is starting to fade. I was wondering around for ages trying to follow footprints in the sand but they all seemed to go nowhere. This is when I also realised I’d left my phone in the car. The best way out was to climb to the top of one mound of peat, look for the edge and take a crow’s route out of there. This lost me loads of time and the last of the light but it was good to be back on track. Some more rocks and a bit of climbing led finally to William’s Clough.

I can’t find where it started on the map but the first section is a rocky path and is STEEP for a good while, really quite scary in the dark and right on the limit of what I would consider a ridable gradient given that it is sustained for a good 30-40 meters. It then eases up a bit before heading into the Clough proper which must be a stunning place in the light, it’s really tight with a nice little stream below the trail. It then gets steep rocky and techy, and sorry to let you down Mr Rockcliffe but it was far from a clean run! In the main it is a good long techy and rocky singletrack descent but thrown in for good measure there are some sizable drops with very awkward landings and a couple of other very tight tricky sections which I definitely didn’t want to try on my own, in the dark, with no mobile (poor excuse I know!). I do reckon most of it is rideable but it would take some sessioning to get the right lines. It was a great feeling just to have made it down in one piece and be cruising alongside the reservoir back to Hayfield.

Looking forward to heading back up there again soon. It’s easily the most challenging trail I have ridden in the Peaks and with the rocks along the ridge also one of the most fun, and is far to good to be left to the ramblers!

That’s interesting. Will have to go and take a proper look.

Fwiw, riding on the Kinder plateau really does seem to upset the Peak District National Park Authority, it’s viewed as a sensitive area, so just be aware that if you bump into a Ranger up there, they won’t be amused regardless of whether you believe, not unreasonably, that tens of thousands of walkers cause plenty of erosion already.