Combs Moss circuit

(S/E) Turn left out ofThe Beehive Innpub and walk down Combs road to the railway bridge.

(1) Just before the bridge follow a footpath on the right between the railway and an adjoining property. After about 200 yards, negotiate a stile on your right and cross a couple of paddocks.

Walk uphill briefly then turn half-left and follow an obvious path that climbs the slope obliquely (Noth-East). At the top of the field ignore a stile on your left, instead passing through the gate ahead of you.

(2) Walk right up the field to a stile into a farm lane. Turn right up the farm drive, passing the gates of Bank Hall and then passing between farm buildings. Beyond the farm, take the right-hand of two field gates and walk up the field edge beyond to a narrow lane (Cowlow Lane).

(3) Cross the lane and stile opposite and climb the steep slope to Castle Naze, picking your way through the rocks at the top.

(4) Turn left and follow the wall round the Naze, crossing a stile with the double bank of the hillfort to your right. Follow the edge path beyond to reach a further stile at the end of a wall.

At a minor summit the path leaves the plateau’s edge to pass through the heather to the right for a short distance before rejoining the edge. Keep on above the crags of Hob Tor, passing the end of a broken wall leading across the moor on your right. Now accompanied by a wall, the edge path continues to the trig point on Black Edge.

(5) Beyond the trig point the path continues to follow the wall in similar fashion, passing the low ruins of a stone building by the end of another broken wall across the moor. The path descends, still following the wall, with the TV mast on Brown Edge away to your left.

(6) As you approach the rocky cleft of Flint Clough, the path bears right to cross the stream, before heading back to the moor edge, now with open woodland beyond the wall on your left.

At a stream crossing the woodland ends; continue along the wall, turning right shortly before passing a small wind turbine. Keep along the top of the crags as the wall departs to pass below them and then rises to rejoin the path.

(7) When the route reaches the southwest corner of the moor (overlooking the White Hall Outdoor Education Centre surrounded by trees) turn right (North-East - East), and follow the wall as before, before dropping to cross a clough.

(8) Rejoin the wall and follow it to a stone-built shooting hut and adjacent shelter, beyond which you cross two minor streams, the path becoming a shooters’ track. After a third stream crossing, do not follow the obvious track down the valley, but keep to the edge, now with the familiar wall on your right, passing above a line of prominent crags.

(9) The path swings right, still with crags on your left and the wall on your right, down to a final stream crossing. Shortly afterwards, the tumbledown wall is met by another rising from the left, which you cross via a stile, remaining outside the edge wall as you approach the climbers’ crags of Castle Naze (4).

Descend from Castle Naze by the same route you ascended (4) , to reach the metalled road. (3) Turn left and follow the lane downhill for a mile back to Combs and The Beehive Inn. (S/E)

A serious excursion over peat moorland with a long opening ascent and rocky or boggy sections, though the path round the plateau edge Is generally level and the views are spectacular. Do not attempt in bad weather. No dogs are permitted on Combs Moss.

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The Beehive Inn
Combs, High Peak,
Derbyshire, SK23 9UT
Tel : +44 (0)1298 812758
Email: info@thebeehiveinn.co.uk
Website: www.thebeehiveinn.co.uk