Mam Tor and the Great Ridge

From the car park at Mam Nick, the path climbs steadily and then steeply to the paved summit ridge, gaining most of its 239 metres of ascent in the first half. The top is flat and wide, the site of a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hillfort whose ramparts are still visible as low banks in the turf, and on a clear day the view runs from Kinder Scout in the north round to the limestone plateau in the south. The National Trust owns this ground as part of its High Peak estate, and its rangers run the restoration work on Mam Tor and the neighbouring Odin Mine that accounts for the paving underfoot. The onward path follows the ridge toward Hollins Cross, the low col separating the Edale and Hope valleys, with the option to press on to Back Tor and Lose Hill for a longer day.

The return leg drops through woodland below the ridge, ground that turns soft and slippery within a day of rain, before climbing back along Broken Road: the old A625, which carried traffic between Sheffield and Chapel-en-le-Frith until repeated landslips forced its abandonment in 1979. The tarmac is still there, cracked and heaved into ridges by decades of ground movement, more interesting to see close up than it sounds from a description.

None of the ascent is technical, but the summit path is exposed to wind from most directions, and the woodland section is slick underfoot when wet. Families with younger children manage it, allowing the best part of three hours rather than the ninety minutes a fit adult would need. It does not suit anyone who came for a short, flat stroll: even this shorter version of the Great Ridge means one sustained climb with no way to avoid it.