Sough Top and Chelmorton Low

July 13, 2022 CIRCULAR WALKS, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS WITH KIDS, PEAK DISTRICT WALKS WITH PUBS, SHORT WALKS UNDER 3 MILES

Sough Top and Chelmorton Low are two of the Peak District Ethels on our challenge which are relatively near to each other. Located just near the village of Chelmorton, near Buxton, this walk is a gentle 3 miles in the beautiful Peak District countryside.

Chelmorton Low

Chelmorton Low is a hill of 446m above sea level just outside the village of Chelmorton. At first glance it’s pretty unremarkable but there are actually two Bronze round barrows at the summit which are a scheduled monument. The summit of the hill is on private land but the route takes you very close and the wall between the private land and open access land is in a very poor condition. There is more information on Bronze Age burial sites on Megalithic.

Sough Top is a hill of 438m above sea level. There is no access to Sough Top trig point unfortunately as it’s on private land but you can get pretty close to it from the public footpath. To the west of Sough Top is Five Wells, a Neolithic chambered tomb which lines up with the Bronze Age burial mounds on Chelmorton Low.

It’s amazing how many Bronze Age burial sites there are dotted around the White Peak. It seems like almost every hill has a burial site! My favourite so far is Minninglow – it’s a very atmospheric place to visit.

Our walk starts from just outside the Church Inn on Main Street. We followed the road up to the entrance to the public footpath and headed north-east through the gate onto Open Access Land. There are no real paths up so we made our own way up to the summit of Chelmorton Low, admired the view and headed back the way we came back to the gate. It was very windy so we didn’t stay long!

Views towards Sough Top

The summit of Chelmorton Low, just over the wall.

From the gate we headed back onto the road and then followed the road past a small woodland area where there is the Bank Pit Spring. Once known as Illy-Willy Water, this spring was the water supply for Chelmorton at one time!

The lane eventually meets a bridleway, which we crossed then headed through the fields, over about a million stiles, to reach the summit of Sough Top.

Sough Top trig point

We could just see the top of Sough Top trig point peeping out of the wheat/corn/barley/whatever it is that was growing there!

We the headed back the way we had come, past the million stiles, and back down the lane to the car.

This was a quick and easy Ethels walk, bagging 2 Ethels without much effort. For more quick and easy Ethels walks, you might like 21 Short Walks in the Peak District.

Parking: Main Street, Chelmorton SK17 9SL

Facilities: None apart from the pub

Walk Time: 1-2 hours

Difficulty: ▲ (Chelmorton Low is steep but the rest is pretty gentle)

Distance:  3.1 miles (5 km) in total

Trig Points Bagged: Sough Top

Peak District Peaks Bagged: Sough Top, Chelmorton Low

Peak District Ethels Bagged: Sough Top, Chelmorton Low

Walk Route Map: Click on the map to access Komoot and download the GPX