🎉New Year's Day 10 Mile Walk🍾Hope🎊Lose Hill🍾Mam Tor Ridge🎊Castleton🎉

🎉Our first walk to celebrate the New Year🎉 is the classic Mam Tor Ridge visiting Castleton for a celebratory drink🍾 along the way.

This beautiful walk starts in the pretty Village of Hope, it's surrounded by stunning scenery and overlooked by the spectacular Win Hill and Lose Hill.

The church in Hope is famous for its Gargoyles and dates back to the 14th Century. There are two ancient crosses in the grounds, one of which is Anglo-saxon, it stands 7ft tall and is highly decorated.

The first part of the walk takes us up to Lose Hill, it's a 476m (1,562ft) climb. Once on the top of Lose Hill, the route follows the Mam Tor 3km long Ridge, Back Tor Hollins Cross and Mam Tor with stunning views of Edale and the Hope Valley all around us.

Mam Tor means Mother Hill, it stands 517m high (1,696ft), a place of ancient civilization with evidence of occupation from around 1200 BC.

The ridge descends to the magnificent Winnats Pass, a dramatic limestone Gorge with breathtaking scenery around us as we walk through it.
We pass the famous Blue John Cavern which is still mined in small quantities for its semi-precious form of fluorite, the Blue John Stone. It can be bought in some of the gift shops in the Village.

The route follows grassy or some times muddy paths up to the beautiful Village of Castleton with its quaint shops and stone cottages, pubs and little tearooms.
A chance for a pint🍻 or something else🥂 before we do the last 2 miles by the river.

Castleton is surrounded by steep hills with the Mam Tor Ridge looming high above it and Peveril Castle sits high on a hill looking down on it.
There are four underground show caves - Blue John Cavern, Speedwell Cavern with boat rides to its eerie bottomless pit, Treak Cliff Cavern and Peak Cavern which is the only cave of the four that is entirely natural. It also has the largest natural cave mouth in Europe.
Peak Cavern was originally called the Devil's Arse due to the flatulence like sounds that eminate from within the caverns. The name was changed to Peak Cavern in order to avoid causing the visiting Queen Victoria any offence.

Leaving this quaint village and the warm pub, 🍻 the last leg of our walk ends with a pleasant riverside walk back to Hope.

A bit of a climb in parts on rocky paths, but also grassy but muddy riverside paths..

Catching up points and breaks along the way as always

Bring a picnic lunch and plenty of snacks to keep you going

Toilets at the start and in Castleton

Walking boots are essential, a walking pole is helpful

As always check the weather and dress accordingly, warm layers essential

Look forward to seeing you all on this spectacular scenic walk to begin 2025..🥂
🎉👩‍🦯🐕🧑‍🦯🧤🧣🚶‍♂️🐕🦮🧑‍🦯🍻🍾🚶‍♀️