Britland Edge Hill, Dead Edge End and Snailsden | 8 Miles

November 27, 2022 CIRCULAR WALKS, HOLMFIRTH WALKS, MEDIUM WALKS 4-9 MILES, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS

This Peak District Ethels walk bags 3 of the Dark Peak Ethels – Britland Edge Hill, Dead Edge End and Snailsden, and 2 trig points. This 8.4 mile walk explores some of the bleaker, more remote parts of the Peak District and the terrain is wet and boggy, to say the least!

We have already bagged these 3 Peak District Ethels, but on 2 separate walks. We had planned to walk this route originally but had to turn back after bagging Britland Edge Hill and Dead Edge End because of a grouse shoot. We have been to Snailsden a few times before as well but it was nice to link them all up in one walk.

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The terrain up on these moors is very wet. The landowners are undertaking works to make the plateau even wetter, by damming up the streams and mini cloughs and planting lots of heather. I was very glad I had my Sealskinz waterproof socks on, because my boots were soaked but my feet were dry!

We started our walk from the Holme Moss car park, and headed south-east onto the moors, following the fence line. In fact, we spent a lot of time following the seemingly never-ending fence! We followed the fence to Britland Edge Hill, dodging the peat bogs and puddles as best we could.

Britland Edge Hill, at 523m above sea level, is an Ethel but it’s an especially unremarkable summit. On a clear day there are lovely moorland views, but on a wet misty day it’s rather bleak. The summit isn’t marked by anything other than a fence post and a puddle.

From here we followed the fence line for 1.75 miles, again dodging the bogs and crossing the stile (the stile becomes an event because it’s quite a featureless walk!) until we reached the trig point at Dead Edge End. We were on the wrong side of the fence but it’s easy enough to pop over the fence – it’s all Open Access Land.

Dead Edge End trig point has some lovely views on a clear day down over Torside Reservoir and Crowden. On this visit the Peak District was having one of those amazing cloud inversion days. We were above the clouds temporarily, so we couldn’t see the views down over Torside, and within 30 seconds of us leaving the trig point the mist rolled in. We spent most of the rest of the walk in the mist!

From the Dead Edge End trig point we picked up a faint path heading roughly north-east. This path peters out in places and goes over rough terrain where it would be easy to become disorientated. Eventually it leads to a row of grouse butts and a gamekeepers track, which we followed, crossing the River Don and climbing up the steepest track I’ve ever seen. When the track levelled out a bit, we followed a faint track to meet Snailsden Edge.

Snailsden Edge usually has some amazing views down over Winscar Reservoir – not when we went though! You can see them on our Snailsden Pike End walk to get an idea of what they should be like!

We wandered along Snailsden Edge for around 0.6 miles before heading north off into the murk to bag the Snailsden Pike End trig point. It’s worth noting that the Snailsden Pike End Ethel is slightly further along the track, so we walked back to the track to continue around to Reaps Moss.

Heading down the hillside (which can be slippery when it’s muddy) we crossed the boardwalk bridge and then turned left, heading past West Drive grouse butt and dodging the bogs to get to the fence and stile.

We jumped over the stile, and then turned left, following the track as it winds its way round the contours of Bailie Causeway Moss, Twizle Head Moss, Lightens Edge and Wilmer Hill, back to the car park. Again, there are usually amazing views down over the Holme Valley and Yateholme Reservoir but not today. We did however manage to walk above the clouds, and the sun setting over Holme Moss was rather pretty.