Peak District – Castleton and Kinder Scout – Loop Walk

I’ve just got back from another great walk in the Peak District, once again I recorded it using ViewRanger and Social Hiking. I’m getting rather addicted to using the Social Hiking website as you may have noticed if you were following our progress along the West Highland Way, while i’m on the subject here is a quick link for you to view our WHW Map for 2011. Right, back to today’s walk. I met up with Andy at Castleton at 10:00, we got kitted up and then headed off along the road past Odin Mine and up towards Hollins Cross.

The weather was rather overcast today but I don’t mind that as I’d seen the forecast earlier in the week which promised rain. After we arrived at Hollins Cross we headed back down the other side of the hill in to Edale, past the Nag’s Head Inn and then up Grindsbrook Clough on to the top of Kinder Scout, we proceeded across the top to the cairn at Kinder Low.

From Kinder Low we headed down to Edale Cross and then over to Brown Knoll, It was rather boggy on this section as we have had rain recently. Great views across to Manchester and also down in to Edale Valley.

After Brown Knoll we headed across to Lord’s Seat, down to Mam Tor and then back down the broken road to join the normal route back in to Castelton. We had parked the cars just up from the Devil’s Arse Caves so we dropped our bags and headed in to Castleton for a quick drink.

I was using ViewRanger and I had it set to post a Beacon to Social Hiking every 2 minutes. The map at the top of this post has some great detail because of this. if you visit the routes page on the SH website you will be able to view all the details about our elevation and distance covered. here is the link to Castleton and Kinder Scout Loop on Social Hiking. Overall the route was 24km and we had approx 756m of height gain over the 5 hours we were out for.

West Highland Way 2011 – Day 1 – Garadhban Forest

Day 1 of the West Highland Way started early and at completely the wrong end of the 100 mile stretch. We awoke this morning early at the Glen Nevis campsite as we had a train to catch from Fort William station at 07:45. It was raining as usual so we quickly chucked the tent in the boot of the car as they were both staying at Glen Nevis for the 5 days that we were due to be walking. We got our gear sorted and made our way along the road to the station as the rain started to ease.

We got on the train at 07:30 and settled in for the ride, it is a fantastic stretch of railway from Fort William to Glasgow with some fantastic views. We have done this stretch many times before and all we wanted to do was be in Milngavie and setting off walking. The train journey seemed to take a long while, although the views are great those 3 or so hours seems to drag on manly due to the fact that the seats are so uncomfortable.

Finally we arrived at Glasgow Queens Street Station, a quick hope to another platform and we were on the local service to Milngavie. The rain was still holding off so once we emerged from the station we walked straight to the starting line and got prepared. We filled our water bladders up, took some pictures and off we went on our West Highland Way 2011 adventure.

Those who have done the WHW before will know that the first few miles are somewhat un remarkable as you walk out of Milngavie. Nothing is wrong with the scenery but the anticipation of seeing the mountains surrounding Loch Lomond kind of overshadows the still rather nice Mugdock Country Park.

Through the Forest, Over the boardwalk, along the Loch, past the log cabins and then down to what we call Lothlorien. The Lord of the Rings fans among you will recognise the name. We have given this name to the wooded hill that is called Dumgoyach in the real world. As we have done the WHW a few times before we have reference points in our heads of what is coming next… as time goes on the distance between those points seems shorter in memory, it’s always a surprise when your actually walking when you find it is actually a lot further than you remember.

Down the hill, sharp left turn and along side the pipe. In reality that is along the pipe past the Drumgoyne Distilery and then on towards the Wig Wams at Gartness another sharp left and you are on the road to Drymen. We always have a quick stop on the bridge at Gartness as it is a rather nice little hamlet. In previous years we have had to shelter from the rain here so it is burned hard in to the memory.

In not time at all you arrive in Drymen after the short road section, A quick stop to stock up on local produce at the butchers next to the pub and we were on our way again. Up in to the Garadbhan forest and along the track. There were diversions in place again this year in the forest but we had a chat with the loggers and they let us through along the original route with no problems.

We got to the very edge of the forest and then began to look for a spot to pitch our Tarp for the night. After a good 20 minutes or so of searching in the rain we decided to just drop anywhere we could and give up the search for the non existant perfect spot.

We pitched the Tarp in record time and got our sleeping arrangements sorted and celebrated a good day with a beer. The forest was nice and silent, it felt good to be back in on the Way and camping in the forests once again.