Kinder Scout

[Broggy1]

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With a good weather forecast and my first free Sunday for ages I decided to make a repeat journey to the Peak District, this time to try out Kinder Scout.

To get to the Western Edges of the hill at Hayfield it's only under an hour and a half from where I live which begs the question as to why I've never bothered doing the hill before. Probably a combination of always having a tendency to head North and not wanting to get involved with the heavy Greater Manchester traffic!

Anyway, I was here today and the first thing that amazed me was how popular the place was - cars literally lined up from the car park near Bowden Bridge right back to where I parked near Hayfield.

In my agenda for the day I had wanted to visit both Trig Points on the hill, Kinder Downfall (obviously) and hopefully the true summit of the hill if conditions would allow.

The start of the walk was an easy wander along the road before I started to gain height above the Reservoir as I headed towards William Clough. From here it was a steady climb (with many annoying little descents) up to the plateau where I joined the Pennine Way.

Views beginning to open up

Heading up William Clough

Nearing the top of the plateau

Once the height was gained the rest of the walk was easy and extremely pleasant along the edge of the plateau. Just after rounding the corner near Sandy Heyes - I moved off the path towards a fence to find the first Trig Point of the day (marked at 624 on the map) which was badly eroded and quite lonely away from the hustle and bustle of the edge path.

The edge path

Eroded Trig at the 624 mark

Once back on the path I passed Kinder Downfall and it's chaotic stack of rocks and water. Quite an interesting place and one where plenty of groups of people had stopped to take photographs.

Approaching Kinder Downfall

At the top of Kinder Downfall

Kinder Downfall

Kinder Downfall

Looking back at Kinder Reservoir from the edge

Shortly after this I moved off the path cross country style across many peat hags and wet ground as I searched for the true summit of the fell. The first cairn I met was a small pile of stones on some newly grown grass with a post coming out of it - I later found out this was the true summit of the fell although from it's position both the Trig Point on Kinder Low and another cairn slightly further along looked higher.

First cairn I met (the true summit I'm told)

I then visited the other cairn using the stone dams (there to stop erosion) to aid getting over some of the boggier ground. To me this seemed like the highest point rather than the previous cairn but either way I wasn't going to lose any sleep about it as it probably changes all the time due to erosion and I'm sure most people are happy to take the Trig on Kinder Low as the summit of the fell.

Second Cairn (I thought this was higher)

Typical Terrain off the main path

After all that bog hopping it was a blessing to meet the path again at Kinder Low and climb a few of the boulders in the area before following the path down and turning right where the Pennine Way turns left, past the Edale Cross and back towards Hayfield.

Rocks on Southern end of the plateau

Trig and summit area of Kinder Low

True summit area from Kinder Low

Looking towards Edale

Road back to Hayfield

A good walk but I felt like I'd only scratched the surface of the Kinder Scout area and I'll definitely be back - perhaps to climb the hill from the Edale side and visit the Wool Packs or the nearby Trig Point on Brown Knoll.

[Mancunian]

Nice trip report, brings back a lot of memories. Way back in 2002 I walked up to Kinder scout from Edale through the Grindsbook Clough which was a very nice walk. But I prefer the cloughs from the bog at the top. Walking is much nicer.

Thanks for sharing this TR.

[Bangkokian]

Like you this is only an hour and a half away from me but I keep heading north. Great report, I'll get there next year as I've only done Mam Tor and the associated edges in The Peak District.