Peak District Challenge Walks
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time you’ll notice I like to do some big old walks, what some might call Peak District Challenge Walks. These are long in distance, tough in terrain, and make for great training walks for longer walks such as the Yorkshire 3 Peaks. These are definitely full day hikes, or you could maybe hike them over a couple of days to make a weekend of it.
Most of these walks involve arduous terrain, are usually boggy and wet, and require good navigational skills.
Dambusters Challenge Walk (Derwent Reservoirs Circular)
This route is 24 miles around the tops of the Derwent Valley around the reservoirs made famous by the Dambusters, with 1010m of climb. Visiting spots like Win Hill, Alport Castles, Back Tor and Lost Lad, this walk has a lot of climbing! We did this one November and got a stunning Win Hill sunrise to start the day.
10 Reservoirs Walk
23 miles around Crowden, Black Hill and Chew Valley. This is a tough walk with just over 1000m of ascent but has some of the best views in the Peak District (in my view!). This is based on an LDWA walking challenge.
Edale Skyline
At 20 miles with 1160m of ascent, this is a Peak District classic and one of the most popular Peak District challenge walks. Starting from Hope, this walk climbs up Win Hill before heading over to Kinder Scout and following the route round to Brown Knoll, Rushup Edge, Mam Tor and Lose Hill.
Black Hill – 4 Trig Points Walk
23 miles and 1180m of ascent, exploring the beautifully desolate moors around Black Hill bagging 4 trig points and 5 Ethels. This walk visits some of my favourite summits including Black Hill and West Nab, but also visits some of the wettest, bleakest moors in the Peak District. You won’t see many other people up there!
Dove Stone Reservoir Skyline Walk
21 miles and 678m of climbing on the beautiful wild moors above Dove Stone Reservoir, exploring little known areas and escaping the crowds in the valley bottom. You’ll climb Aldermans Hill, pass the Saddleworth trig point and descend Rimmon Pit Clough before climbing back up Birchen Clough to the Trinnacle, heading round the tops to Ashway Moss and Alphin Pike.
Bleaklow 3 Plane Crash Walk
14.5 miles of rugged moorland discovering 3 plane crash sites, with 594m of climbing. This route starts and finishes in Glossop and heads up James’s Thorn to Higher Shelf Stones before visiting Bleaklow Head, Featherbed Top and Mill Hill, ticking off 4 Ethels along the way.
Kinder Scout Perimeter Walk
This route follows the edge path that runs around the perimeter of Kinder Scout, with 640m of climbing. You can extend this and add in a climb up Grindslow Knoll as well (but we didn’t as we were pushed for time!). I can’t promise you’ll have these amazing views…
The Roaches and Hen Cloud Circular Walk
This 17 mile walk visits 3 trig points and 5 Ethels – Gun Moor Trig Point, The Roaches Trig Point, Hen Cloud, Ramshaw Rocks and Merryton Low (Blake Mere Trig Point). It’s a full day out exploring beautiful Staffordshire moorlands, with 784m of ascent.
Derbyshire 3 Peaks
This 18 mile walk visits the three highest summits in Derbyshire – Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Higher Shelf Stones with 840m of ascent. There’s also a pub at the end!
Derwent Valley Skyline Walk
One of the toughest walks I’ve done! This challenging 24.5 mile route with 929m of climbing heads up onto Derwent Edge and then visits some of the most remote spots in the Peak District. Don’t underestimate this route – it’s a tough challenge and definitely harder than some of the other skyline walks.
Holme Valley Circular Walk
OK, so this is not fully in the Peak District but part of the route does just dip over the boundary. This is a tough 24 mile route with 1300m of ascent, from Honley up to Castle Hill, then Thurstonland, Hepworth, Netherthong and back to Honley, passing Digley Reservoir and the ruins of Hades along the way.
Fairholmes to the Grinah Stones
This route explores the bleak moorland of the upper Derwent Valley and visits some of the most remote parts of the Peak District. With 762m of climb over 17 miles, this route visits the Grinah Stones and Barrow Stones. The terrain is tough, wet and boggy but if you want a peaceful day on the hills, this could be the walk for you!
Minninglow and Stanton Moor
This Peak District walk takes in Minninglow, Bonsall Moor, Stanton Moor and Harthill Moor and is a challenging 17.7 miles with 625m of ascent. This is a great walk if you are taking part in the Peak District Ethels challenge, and also bags the Stanton Moor trig point and takes you as near as you can get to the Harthill Moor, Slipper Low, Blake Low and Bonsall Moor trig points without going on private land.
Black Hill and Crowden
This Black Hill to Crowden walk from Holme Village heads up to Black Hill via Issue Clough then heads down to Crowden past Laddow Rocks, before climbing back to Black Hill past Westend Moss and White Low. It’s a 16.5 mile circular walk in the Peak District that covers bleak, moorland terrain and has 853m of ascent. The climb up to Laddow Rocks is especially tough but the views make it worthwhile.
Mini Edale Skyline Walk
At 17 miles with 838m of climbing, this walk takes in 4 Peak District Ethels (Lord’s Seat, Brown Knoll, Lose Hill and Mam Tor) as well as 3 Peak District trig points (Brown Knoll, Edale Moor and Mam Tor).
Rishworth 5 Trigs Walk
Just outside the Peak District, this 19 mile walk over the ruggedly beautiful Rishworth Moors starts from Marsden and winds its way over the moors via 5 different trig points (Cupwith Hill, Dog Hill (aka Rishworth Moor), Blackstone Edge, White Hill and Millstone Edge). There’s 754m of climbing on this route.
Have you got a favourite long walk that’s not on here?
