Sparklow (Hurdlow) Car Park to Buxton

I had thought that today's leg would be a gentle walk across the Peak District to the pretty spa town of Buxton. This was right in parts; very wrong in others.  We were heading back to Milton Keynes this afternoon, perhaps along busy roads because it was bank holiday Monday, so we didn't want to be too late leaving Derbyshire. We therefore left the Macclesfield North Premier Inn quite early this morning and had a straightforward drive back to Buxton. We used to go to quite considerable lengths to avoid driving in convoy, but we don't worry so much about it these days and, more by luck than anything else, Richard was driving directly behind me for most of the way, and this worked to our advantage:  we'd expected to park at the Pavilion Gardens car park (entrance at SK054734), which would have cost us £5.40 for the day, but as we approached along Burlington Road, I realised that there was oodles of free on-road parking (which might not have been the case had this been a working day) and so stopped. Because Richard saw me do this, there was no difficulty as a result of me having stopped somewhere other than the place we were aiming for. There was nothing not to like! We drove on in Richard's car back to the Hurdlow (or Sparklow) car park (SK127659) which unfortunately is not free. We dutifully paid our £4.75 and set off walking soon after 8.30 am.

The initial stages of the walk were not terribly exciting. First we continued to the north-west along the disused railway that is now the High Peak Trail (also shared by the Pennine Bridleway) for the mile and a half remaining to the end of the High Peak Trail at Durlow. You can't carry straight ahead here because there is a massive limestone quarry ahead. Cycle Route 68 (the "Pennine Cycleway") turns left here and we turned right,  with the Pennine Bridleway. A cyclist came past us, making a nice photo as she headed into the distance. We'd expected to have a short walk along the busy A515, but instead we turned  right onto a path beside it, before crossing the A515 and taking the minor road towards Chelmorton. We were soon back on a track, with the views improving the further north we went.

At a road junction, the Pennine Bridleway continued straight ahead while we turned left and then right and descended to towards Chelmorton. This is not a well known part of the Peak District (or maybe it is just that I don’t know it), and it is an unavoidable fact that you’re never far from a quarry, but that wasn’t obvious round here and it was attractive countryside. The church in Chelmorton was hidden behind trees and buildings, but what we could see of the village was pretty. We took a path straight ahead, past the old rectory, which had a gothic feel. It felt as if we were going around the back of the village; to our left was a patchwork of fields, demarcated by stone walls and the hill of Chelmorton Low was up to the right.

We crossed a main road and continued on a track and then a footpath to the west. There were stiles to negotiate, but nothing more; that was about to change! The clue was a narrow band of brown on the map; closely packed contours – and the name “Deep Dale”. The descent was very steep, not my forte and  I didn’t have my walking poles with me; I shuffled down, mostly on my bottom! However, we were rewarded by a beautiful dale, with limestone crags above a narrow wooded valley. More worryingly, right down at the bottom there was also a sign indicating that the path was closed because of work on the nature reserve along the valley; after an agonising few minutes of contemplating a climb back up the way we had come, then having to find a way around, we realised that the path that was closed was the one through the valley, not the one up the other side, which was the way our route lay. I don’t remember the ascent being as steep as the descent, perhaps because of the relief.

We reached a minor road by a little church, near the village of King Sterndale, which is described as being the Derbyshire seat of the Pickford Family (of the Pickford Removal Company fame). I’m not sure if the Pickfords live or lived in the building marked on the OS map as “The Hall”, but it was across attractive parkland, most likely associated with The Hall that we walked, passing some walkers heading in the opposite direction. We passed along the top of a wooded valley and reached another road at Cowdale, where we ate an early lunch sitting on a conveniently positioned bench.

From Cowdale, we climbed to the hamlet to Staden, gaining attractive views behind us. We passed an attractive old building and descended. Eventually we passed around the edges of a caravan site, where a woman was cleaning a concrete hardstanding. Shortly afterwards we reached a railway viaduct which we briefly walked alongside before passing under. As the path continued, we realised we were approaching a  “rat run” that we used last year to avoid the centre of Buxton, and we reached this road very close to its junction with the main A515.

We continued through the town, eventually leaving the road (along which the official route of the Midshires Way appears to lie) and heading across “The Slopes” to Buxton’s elegant Crescent. We continued past the Opera House and into the Pavilion Gardens. I’d hoped for a quiet cup of tea here before setting off for the journey home, but it was heaving with people, with an event of some sort with stalls in the Pavilion and children’s rides in the gardens, so I just used the toilets by the car park then we returned to the car for an apple. Our free parking space on Burlington Road was much in demand, and someone pulled into it within seconds of me pulling out. We returned to the Hurdlow carpark to collect Richard’s car, then had a good journey back to Milton Keynes, although the route around Derby and on to the M1 was not one I knew, so it was a bit confusing.