Cracken Edge

Description

(D/A) From The Navigation INN door, facing the car park and canal, turn left, then bear left at the end of the car park to join the Peak Forest Tramway Trail.

(1) Pass a tramway arch on your left, and some houses on your right, then leave the Trail via a footbridge over the stream on the left. Turn left and follow the path as it curves up and away from the stream, ending at some steps leading up to a road (B6062).

(2) Cross the road and turn left to pass under the railway bridge into Brierley Green. Pass the Congregational Church and then turn sharp right into a footpath by a postbox. Head for the far right-hand corner of the field beyond to reach a stile and gate.

(3) Follow the right-hand edge of the next field, above a walled hollow way. When the walled section ends, head across to the highest point of the field, to a stone stile to the right of a barn with triangular openings.

Cross the drive beyond and head over a stile along a grassed terrace below a house and garden. Beyond the house and before a gate, turn left up stone-paved steps through the garden to a field gate. Beyond the gate continue uphill, passing through two further field gates and then following a wall until you reach a road (Over Hill Road).

(4) Turn right and walk downhill for a short distance to a stile and footpath sign on the left. Take the obvious footpath, which leads initially along a bank of spoil and climbs gradually to the quarries of Cracken Edge.

Eventually the path passes above a winding house with the remains of its wheel and crosses a land-slipped area on a narrow path.

(5) After a level interlude followed by a slight rise, when the path starts to descend towards the isolated farmhouse of Whiterakes, look out for a bench by the path dedicated to one Shirley Fidler. Immediately beyond this bench, leave the obvious path, heading obliquely left up the slope on an obscure path that heads towards an eroded gritstone outcrop.

Pick your way past the rocks to the top of the hill, then follow an obvious path beyond it, away from the edge and downhill to a stile.

(6) Follow the wall beyond the stile until you reach a walled track, where you turn left. Follow this walled track gradually downhill for 3⁄4 mile until you reach the road. Turn right and walk along the road for 100 yards or so then take a footpath on the left. Walk down the hill and go through a gate into the farmyard of Hill Farm.

(7) Swing right between the buildings and exit to the road along the farm drive. Turn left and follow the road downhill to a road junction, where you turn left. Follow this road for 1⁄2 mile to emerge in Brierley Green.

(8) Turn right and follow the road under the railway bridge. Beyond the primary school, turn left and follow the road down to journey’s end at the The Navigation INN. (D/A)