Winnats Pass, Castleton

Winnats Pass is the road that climbs west out of Castleton, in the Hope Valley of the Peak District, through a limestone gorge to a T-junction at the top; the National Trust’s directions to Mam Tor say to turn right there for the Mam Nick car park. The National Trust owns the pass, and the Peak District National Park Authority calls it the only route into Castleton from the west since the Mam Tor landslip destroyed the A625 beneath the hill. Wikipedia dates that road’s permanent closure to 1979 and gives the pass a maximum gradient of over 28 per cent.

The Authority says there are several theories for how the gorge formed, one being that it grew under water as lagoon currents built a reef, with glacial melt water enlarging it in the Ice Age. Wikipedia puts the limestone at about 340 million years old. At the foot of the pass sits Speedwell Cavern, which its operator describes as a boat journey through the workings of a lead mine. The Castleton Historical Society prints the earliest known account of the pass’s murder legend, from the Derby News of 28 April 1788: a young couple robbed and killed there in 1758, their bones found in 1768.

Mam Nick is the only National Trust car park in the area, and the Trust calls it very small. Speedwell Cavern runs a pay car park opposite its entrance at the pass’s foot. Walkers usually start at the Castleton Visitor Centre on Buxton Road, where the site Peak District Walks lists a pay and display car park. It describes two ways through on foot: beside the road, or a steep, rocky path along the top of the gorge, where hands are needed in places and there are sheer drops down to the road. It advises against that path with children. Neither the National Trust nor the Authority publishes a waymarked route through the pass.

The pass suits anyone wanting limestone scenery from the car on a day too short or too wet for a hill, and walkers happy with a rocky half-day. Anyone expecting a pavement, a safe place to stop on the gradient or a path for children will find none, and drivers nervous of steep, narrow roads have no other way into Castleton from the west. Cave Dale, a 6km circuit from Castleton, shows more of the same limestone on foot.