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The Dark Peak

Bleaklow, Black Hill and Kinder Scout. The place-names of the Dark Peak give a good clue to the forbidding nature of the terrain. Enclosing the central limestone plateau of the White Peak on three sides like an upturned horseshoe, the millstone-grit moors of the Dark Peak offer a stern introduction to the wilder country of the north.

It is a landscape for the well equipped hill-walker, where the climate can change suddenly and unpredictably, and where mountain rescue teams are constantly on call to save those who underestimate the conditions. The summit of the National Park is Kinder Scout at 2,088 feet (636 m), a 5 square mile (13 sq. km) morass of peat and heather north of Edale. Kinder is the first hurdle on the 250 mile (402 km) Pennine Way, which starts for most people on the former log bridge in Edale.

These inhospitable moors were the scene of the famous access battles of the 130’s, when ramblers from the neighbouring cities of Manchester and Sheffield regularly trespassed over the private grouse moors to exercise their ‘right to roam’. The battles culminated in the so-called ‘Battle of Kinder Scout’ on 24th April 1932, when five ramblers were imprisoned after clashes with gamekeepers during a widely publicised mass trespass. These ramblers became martyrs to the access cause, and played no small part in the campaign for National Parks which resulted in the creation of the Peak National Park in 1951.

Nowadays, 76 square miles (197 sq.km) of Dark Peak moorlands, including the ‘battle grounds’ of Kinder Scout and Bleaklow, are covered by special access agreements negotiated between the National Park authority and landowners. Ramblers are free to wander at will except for a handful of days each year when the moors are closed for grouse-shooting or when there is a severe risk of fire.
National Park Rangers patrol these access areas, as well as the rest of the Park, to act a s a link between visitors and owners, and help both when they can.

On the fringes of the moors, which are managed almost exclusively for the plump, furry-footed red grouse, dark walls of rock drop abruptly to the valleys below. These are the well known Peakland ‘edges’ where generations of rock-climbers have tested their skills against the tough, abrasive gritstone in a variety of challenging routes.