Grindsbrook Clough

Only 2 of us this week me obviously and my brother Rob. I got to his house at 06:00 as usual and after a bit of a chat we decided today was the day to go to Grindsbrook Clough and up onto the Kinder Scout plateau. We arrived at Edale station car park around 07:15 and immediately set off up through the village and onto the footpath. At first it took us across lovely farmland, then through some woods and over the brook for the first time. This was really easy going at this stage then after that it was a long steady incline up a nice path. We even passed a small Christmas tree, after we had climbed a bit on this steady incline we came to the start of the rocky section, small rocks at first we just had to pick around them. The path crossed the brook a couple of times and then the rocks got bigger and occasionally we had to use our hands. At this stage the incline was getting quite severe and then we arrived at the top section which is just a boulder field with lots of large pools to negotiate and this was climbing, i had to put my camera away at this point. You definitely need strong boots and patience to pick out your route. We got to the top of Grindsbrook Clough and then walked around to Grindsbrook Knoll where we had our breakfast. We chatted to an ex marine and his partner and they told us about the route down to Edale from Grindsbrook Knoll so after our breakfast we headed back down. It took us 2 hours to get up to the top and only 1 hour 15 minutes to get back down, this route although steep was much easier. The weather was kind today and i suspect in hot conditions it would be hell going up Grindsbrook The views going up were just stunning

Route up Grindsbrook Clough

Holy and Undivided Trinity Church Edale

The village

The Old Nags Head

Rob

Lovely old wooden bridge

Start of the steady incline

Looking back towards Edale

The long and winding road uphill

Christmas tree

Rob

Looking back down the track

Looking back

Rob at one of the many crossing over the brook

Me and Rob with a small waterfall

First glimpse of the trials to come

Rob

It started to get serious about here

Rob

Me with the Kinder Scout plateau in the background

Up and up

There were numerous little pools some of them quite deep

Boulders started to get bigger

Nearly there

On the top of Grindsbrook Clough

Rob

Looking down Grindsbrook with the Great Ridge on the horizon

This little fella was jumping all over the rocks on the edge with at least  100 feet drop

Rob

Pano of the view

On  the way to Grindslow Knoll

A view looking into the route we had climbed up

Cairn on the top

Rob

Me

Coming back down a different route

Track into the village

The official start of the Pennine Way

This is an old Derbyshire Stoop hidden in the hedge at the station car park.

 This was a cracking walk with just Rob and myself, a bit strenuous at times but well worth the effort. It took just over 2 hours to go up and just over 1 hour to get back down although a much easier track. In total it was just over 4 1/2 miles but over 1100 feet ascent and then obviously 1100 coming back down.
See you next week.