Having a free afternoon last Sunday we decided to take the opportunity to do a bit of hill-walking and chose a route up to Kinder Downfall in the Peak District National Park. The route itself has some history behind it for we would be following in the footsteps of the mass trespass walk of 1932 where ramblers made their way to Kinder Scout.

So following church we headed off to Hayfield and had our lunch beside Bowden Bridge car park, before setting off initially following the River Kinder towards Kinder Reservoir and then via White Brow.

  

It doesn’t take long before some great views open up.

We continued to climb through William Clough and through the purple heather.

  

At Ashop Head near the top we joined the Pennine Way.

By now the wind was bracing, so much so that at times it was difficult to stay upright! There was a bit of a chill resulting in Sarah’s first extra layer of clothing being added …

As we headed to Kinder Scout’s north-west edge the views looking down the valley to our right were spectacular.

Sadly, these being the dryer months meant there wasn’t much of a waterfall to see at Kinder Downfall.

Time for another layer of clothing …

After Red Brook we began to make our way down again.

We walked through Broad Clough.

And finally reached Kinder Road before heading back to the car park.

We finished by having a quick snack. There was even time to remove one of those layers …

This was a fabulous walk and although this was meant to be an 8 mile walk it turned out to be not much short of 10 miles. The feet were ready for a rest.