High Peak Estate is a large area of moorland, situated in Hope Valley. It is run by the National Trust. You can see the Google map of the area here.
I started off by taking the train to Sheffield. This is a quick journey since it’s one stop. I then took another train out to Edale. This train was rather spartan, looking more like the interior of a bus (The train coming back was better, it even had carpets).
The train station was a rather small affair, being comprised of just a couple of shelters. There wasn’t much more to Edale, just a pub, a visitor’s centre and some farms scattered round the area.
Once again the weather was against me, with the skies being overcast all morning. At least it wasn’t raining though.
As I left the station I started out on a country road which narrowed to one lane, before becoming a stone path which then turned into a dirt path.
As the train was going through Hope Valley the hills to either side looked pretty daunting. Fortunately they turned out to be not too hard to climb. They were certainly easier than the hill at Arthur’s Seat where I spent most of the climb thinking my heart was about to get out.
It was a pretty windy day and, of course, got windier as I got higher up the hills. There was a couple of times where I thought I’d be blown off the hillside. I guess this means I need to buy some more lenses, to act as ballast.
There wasn’t much wildlife aside from a trip of goats.
I walked up to the peak of the hill and then continued along the hills. At one of the peaks there were a series of stone piles. They could have been cairns, placed there during Celtic times. Or they could have just been piles of stone.
On the third peak I came to this stone marker which a drawing of the surrounding area engraved on top. At this point I was getting tired of being blown about so I decided to head back.
When I think about the peak district, it is generally of rolling hills and deep valleys. This sums up High Peak Estate to a T. It is the quintessential Peak District. I only really explored a small part of it, so I’d like to go again. Probably when the weather’s a bit nicer.
Posted by msparshatt 
