Peak District Ethels Walks

Are you looking for Peak District Ethels walks? If you are hoping to take on this epic walking challenge this year, this blog post will help you complete the challenge in 39 walks (or less, because I’m planning to re-walk some of them and combine some Ethels where I can). Each walk has a GPX file so you can plan your routes the easy way!

 

So what are the 95 Ethels in the Peak District? Where are the Ethels in the Peak District? Well. The Peak District Ethels Challenge was created by CPRE and the Ethels themselves are a collection of 95 hills, with most of them being over 400m above sea level and significant prominent lower hills. The challenge is named after Ethel Haythornthwaite, the environmental campaigner and pioneer behind the countryside movement which led to the formation of the Peak District in 1951. Without her, there would be no National Park today.

 

The Ethels Challenge takes in the 6 county tops that are within the Peak District, 4 hills with summits over 600m, 27 hills over 500m, 37 hills over 400m and 27 other prominent hills. The challenge covers the whole of the Peak District, exploring the wild and desolate Dark Peak areas of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Black Hill to the farmland and beautiful countryside of the White Peak with hills such as Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill to be climbed.

 

 

You can download the Ethel Ready app for Android or iPhone. The app is great as it shows you information about each Ethel and whether there is a trig point there too or not (if you’re bagging the Peak District Trig Points like us, this is so helpful!).

 

Some of the Ethel summits are on private land, so you can’t go to the summit without permission from the landowner. You can opt for a “close enough is good enough approach” and tick them off your list though.

 

I kept a record of our walks on this List of Peak District Ethels blog post.

 

Here is a list of Peak District Ethels walks which will help you to complete the challenge in 39 walks (or less). Some of the walks are significantly longer than others, so you may want to break those up into smaller walks if you don’t fancy the distance. We got a bit carried away with our free Fridays and used some of them as training for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge.

 

Peak District Ethels Walk:	Ethels	Miles	Options
Aleck Low, Wolfscote Hill	2	9
Alphin Pike, Ashway Moss	2	21
Alport Moor	1	9
Axe Edge Moor, Oliver Hill, Cheeks Hill	3	9.5
Back Tor, Lost Lad	2	6
Black Hill, Black Chew Head, Featherbed Moss, White Low, West Nab	5	23	Split into two shorter walks
Black Edge (Combs Moss), Corbar Hill, Combs Hill	3	7
Eccles Pike, Sponds Hill, Black Hill (Whaley Bridge)	3	12
Stanton Moor, Bonsall Moor, Harthill Moor, Minninglow	4	17.7
Higher Shelf Stones, Bleaklow Head, Featherbed Top and Mill Hill	4	14.5
Bole Hill (Burton Moor)	1	5.5
Bolehill (Cromford Moor), Harboro Rocks	2	9
Bradwell Moor	1	5
Britland Edge Hill, Dead Edge End, Snailsden Pike End	3	8.5
Lord’s Seat, Brown Knoll, Lose Hill and Mam Tor	4	17
Burbage Edge	1	5
Sir William Hill, Durham Edge, Burton Bole (Shatton Moor)	3	9
High Wheeldon, Pilsbury Hill, Carder Low	3	8.5
Cats Tor, Shining Tor, Foxlow Edge	3	6	Add on Whetstone Ridge
Sough Top, Chelmorton Low	2	3
Chinley Churn, Mount Famine, South Head	3	6
Chrome Hill, Parkhouse Hill, High Edge, Hollins Hill	4	6
Cown Edge	1	11
Croker Hill	1	5
Crook Hill, Win Hill	2	8.5
Ecton Hill, Wetton Hill, Revidge	3	8.5
Mam Tor, Lord’s Seat, Gautries Hill, Eldon Hill, Slitherstone Hill	5	8
Fin Cop, Longstone Moor and Wardlow Hay Cop	3	13
Grin Low	1	2.5
Grindslow Knoll & Kinder Scout	2	7.5
Gun, The Roaches, Ramshaw Rocks, Hen Cloud, Merryton Low	5	17	Split into two walks, or do Merryton Low as a quick walk from the nearby lay-by parking.
Harland Edge	1	9
High Neb, Stanage Pole, White Path Moss, Higger Tor	4	6.5
Lees Moor	1	8.5
Margery Hill, High Stones	2	12
Musden Low	1	1
Shutlingsloe, Whetstone Ridge	2	7.5
The Cloud	1	2
Thorpe Cloud, Tissington Hill	2	7

If you do one of these walks a week, you’ll have the Peak District Ethels Challenge completed in a year!

 

You can reduce the number of walks further by combining some of the walks, such as Dead Edge End, Britland Edge Hill and Snailsden, or Mill Hill and Featherbed Top, taking the number down to 39 walks. I’m hoping to do these soon so will update the blog post when I have done with the new routes.

Once you’ve ticked off all 95 Ethels, a brand new list unlocks in the app: the Peak 75 – another set of stunning hills, hidden gems and breathtaking viewpoints across the Peak District.

The best bit is that you’ll already have done loads of them if you’ve done the Ethels!

You can get also get free walking routes and gpx files for each of the Peak 75s.

 

I’d love to know how you get on! Get in touch via the comments 🙂

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