Kinder Scout Dog Stone via Sandy Heys and Cluther Rocks | 8 Miles

January 23, 2023 CIRCULAR WALKS, MEDIUM WALKS 4-9 MILES, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS WITH KIDS

This is a 7.6 mile Kinder Scout walk, starting in Bowden Bridge and climbing up Sandy Heys before heading along the plateau to The Edge trig point, Kinder Downfall and then down through Cluther Rocks in search of the Kinder Scout Dog Stone.

This is a challenging walk in sections, especially the part through Cluther Rocks where the Kinder Scout Dog Stone is. We scrambled over some of the rocks, but there is a very faint path running through the rocks (which we didn’t stick to). The area is littered with deep holes in the peat which can be covered with heather, some of them which are really deep. On the day we visited Joel fell in one of the holes (a few moments after we were pretending to fall in them!) and he twisted his knee. I later read that a dog had gone missing in one of the holes nearer Grindsbrook Clough. Please take care if you visit!

The walk starts in the car park at Bowden Bridge, near the Hayfield Campsite where there are public toilets. We headed along Kinder Road towards the Reservoir track gates, and followed the track to the gates of the old abandoned water treatment works. Here we headed up the steep cobbled White Brow past Marepiece Wood until we reached a path near a wall heading up the hillside. We followed this path up White Brow until the path levelled out then turned left to head to the shooting cabin near Kinder Scout. Sadly this is locked up and not accessible, so we headed back down to the green sign and then onward along White Brow, dropping down the hillside gradually to reach the bridge over William Clough where it joins Kinder Reservoir.

A white shooting cabin on the moors near Kinder Scout

The shooting cabin near Kinder Scout, sadly locked

From here we took the steep path north-east up the hillside known as Sandy Heys. This is quite challenging in places but does level out! There are some rocks near the top near where it joins the Pennine Way running around the perimeter of Kinder Scout.

We headed right and followed the path around the edge, then took a detour off to find The Edge trig point. This is over the fence, so we found a stile and hopped over before heading to the trig point, or should I say trig pointS! There are actually 2 trig points here, with the old one being dumped on the ground next to the newer one. I’m not sure if there is anywhere else where you can touch 2 trig points at once!

From The Edge we followed the fence line back to the main path and headed round to Kinder Downfall. If you’ve read some of my other Kinder Scout walks you’ll know I’ve not had much luck with seeing this apparently amazing waterfall. We’ve been up in all weathers but it’s either covered in mist or dry as a bone! My run of bad luck with the highest waterfall in the Peak District finally changed and I was able to see it, plus it was blowing backwards too!

The Komoot route deviates off the path to get a better view of the waterfall, which I would only recommend doing in good weather.

We then crossed the River Kinder and headed around the other side of the Downfall, where again I left the path to get some pics. We then headed round to Red Brook, and just after Red Brook we picked up the path leading down the mountainside towards Cluther Rocks. We took a detour from the main path to scramble over the rocks and find the Dog Stone.

We had planned to find the millstones and the Kinder Scout Dog Stone but we only found the Dog Stone. This is a rock carved with a secret message in Pigpen Cypher (which Hols loves) and a dog, plus some masonic symbols. It could be all mysterious but was probably carved by a stonemason who had some spare time! The message on the Dog Stone is thought to read “She may be small but she is of the best green stone”. We also watched a stoat playing nearby.

We didn’t manage to find the millstones unfortunately, as Joel twisted his knee while we were walking/scrambling through Cluther Rocks so we had to cut our walk short. We had planned to head back up onto the plateau and head to Kinder Low trig point before finding some of the plane crash sites up there, but we’ll have to go another time.

Instead we headed to the dry stone wall and then followed it to pick up a footpath alongside Broad Clough. We then walked along the edge of the pine plantation before dropping down the hill near the water treatment works. We took the road down past Farlands and the Booth sheep wash before heading back to the car.