Kinder By The Edges

Edale's nestled conveniently under the looming dark chunk of peat and weird rocks that's Kinder Scout, which makes it an ideal base for a classic scoot around the plateau edges.

Plateau? Yep, it's the Lost World transported to Derbyshire, a high level table of peaty morasse sliced up by trench-like peat groughs, littered with weird and wonderfully shaped rounded boulders and falling off stepply at the edges where it's all held in place by tiers of rocky gritstone crags.

The rocky ridge of Ringing Roger seen from further along the plateau

The classic walk is 'Kinder by the Edges', 16 odd miles of walking around the perimeter of the plateau taking in most of the classic sights and formations, but avoiding the navigational horrors of the central area. The walking on the edge is generally firm and easy and, as a bonus for the navigationally challenge, it's hard to get it wrong.

Anyway, it was the OUTDOORSmagic Autumn Meet-Up in Edale, so really it had to be done. While the less hardy attendees slunk off to Burbage to go climbing, a hard core of five of us, plus three who turned up late, headed up for Kinder.

The rocky ridge of Ringing Roger seen from further along the plateau

From Edale the most direct and atmospheric start is to cut off the Pennine Way slog up crumbling Grindsbrook early on, follow the path up onto the Nab then up the rocky, scrambly spine of Ringing Roger and onto the plateau proper.

From here you have a choice - cut straight across the centre - it's narrow here, just 500 metres or so - and start on the quieter northern edges, or stick to the southern, more popular side.

An alternative route onto the plateau. Nice...

We stayed with the crowds and headed off along the skyline above Edale, crossing the tops of Upper and Nether Tors - climbing in good weather - then on and round on undulating ground till we reached the top of Grindsbrook and sat around feeling smug about not having ground our way up the loose, rubbly stream bed.

The team searches desperately for Andy's pet grouse...

From there we cunningly avoided walking out onto Grindslow Knoll and cut the corner towards the Pagoda and Crowden Tower. All in vain as Andy turned paparazzi and started stalking an innocent but surprisingly tame grouse on the way. Great views, great atmosphere.

Shy and reclusive grouse poses for photographs

We snacked by the trig point on Kinder Low - always a handy orientation point - then headed towards Kinder Downfall, the jumble of rocks come waterfall that's probably the best-known and most dramatic point of the walk. With the wind howling up the Downfall, water can swing round in mid air and be driven back over the top. Not today though and even the notoriously psychopathic sheep were keeping their distance from the hordes.

'Can anyone see the trig point? It must be around here somewhere...'

From here's it's on, along the edge with views back to the waterfall to the promentary overlooking William Clough - the route of the Kinder Trespass - where we cut back onto the less populated northern edge of the hill.

Kinder Downfall - anyone for lunch, yep, look closely.

There's a sense of space and grandeur to the northern edges as they wind their way along the tops of huge rocky crags overlooking the Snake Path along Ashop Clough. The path rises and falls, weaves into huge inlets and out again and finally hangs high above the A57 Snake Road where the scream of unsilenced motorcycle exhausts reminds you of how close to and how far from you are from civilisation and, more irritatingly, the Snake Inn.

The start of the northern edge. Big, sweeping brush strokes in gorse and rock

I think we've found the edge... (Mark Bradshaw)

It was as the trig point above Ringing Roger hove into view that we had to make our second navigational decision of the day - turn right, across the plateau and back down into Edale or carry on round for a final couple kms and take in Madwoman's Stones and the end of Kinder, where it just sort of peters out at Crookstone Knoll.

Team OM - left to right: Andy, Jeremy, Alex and Mark

What can I say? It was late, well, four o'clockish, and Edale's famed nightlife - two pubs and a couple of caffs - beckoned, so it was back down Ringing Roger and the knee-clubbing steps beneath and into the Old Nag's Head for a welcome carbohydrate replenishment session after a top day.

Kinder rocks... Doh. pic by Mark Bradshaw

And finally, what sort of idiot wears shorts in October... Ah, that'd be me then (pic: Mark Bradshaw)

For loads more pics from this walk, check out OM member Andy Wallace's web pages here.