Tintwistle and Hyde: Circular route from Hadfield. Starting and ending at Hadfield Rail Station. This is a continuation of routes around the periphery of the Peak District.
Total Time: 6 hours, 28 minutes; Total Distance: 24.05km; Total Ascent: 1,879m; Moving Speed: 4.27kmph.
Started from Hadfield Rail Station, took the Longdendale Trail Northeast to Padfield Main Road. Turned northwest to Tintwistle Bridge at Bottoms Reservoir. turned west to Arnfield Reservoir, and then northwest to Swallow's Wood Nature Reserve. Continued north on the Tameside Trail through Lower Bank and then Middle Bank, to the connection with The Pennine Bridleway. Turned southeast through Higher Bank where I turned north to handrail Ogden Clough between Boar Flat to the west and Arnfield Moor to the east. Continuing north along Ogden Brook, at Arnfield Flats the trails disappeared and the ground underfoot became became first wet spongy moss and peat groughs, and as the elevation increased, snow. Took bearings toward Chew Hurdles, though I could often see the fence line to the west to handrail. I noted that by handrailing the fence line, even from a distance, it caused bearing off to the west, so I changed to following compass bearings across Ormes Moor, and the aptly named "Wilderness." This are is high and flat, and is like being on the open sea, as there are often no geographic features visible, just flat open, snow covered territory. Reached Chew Hurdles and turned east towards Chew Reservoir. The ground under foot was muddy and rocky. After passing Chew Reservoir the trail again disappears with muddy groughs to cross, again using bearings across open terrain with few to no geographic features crossing Laddow Moss. Once I reached the edge at Laddow Rocks then it was handrailing the Pennine Trail south to Crowden, where I turned west on the Pennine Trail to the dam at Torside Reservoir, crossed to the south side of the reservoir, and then took the good quality Longdendale Trail southwest all the way back to Hayfield Station.
Route Planning was conducted using the OS OL1 1:25,000 Map for the overview, then creating detailed route waypoints on the OS Mapping software on the computer, printing A4 maps to track on the trail.
Weather reports were again compared between Met Office and AccuWeather. Both were again the matched for temperatures, which started in the morning at 0C with a feels like of -3C. Highs for the day around 4C, but with the continuous winds on the high ground of the hills and moors the feels like remained below 0C all day. Met Office called for 10% chance of precipitation through the day. AccuWeather showed more variability between 10% and at times 50%. However, there was no precipitation all day until just before reaching Hayfiled at the end of the route, where it snowed.
Overall, this was not the most interesting of routes. There were good views of Bleaklow and the Kinder Plateau covered in snow off in the distance. Swallow's Wood Nature Reserve was also an interesting find, and would be a good candidate for taking groups on shorter walks. The woods are pleasant, and at the northern end, above the tree line, you can see the best views of Bleaklow and Kinder, without having to cover the difficult ground, elevation gain, and bleak territory of Ormes Moor, the Wilderness, and Laddow Moss.
Area :
Dark Peak
Is situated between Sheffield and Manchester. The underlying rock is Millstone grit which is often exposed at the edge of the higher peat bogs for which the area is famous.
