Mending Our Mountains

It was the great mountain photographer Walter Poucher who first named the Mam Tor – Lose Hill ridge which separates the Hope Valley from Edale ‘The Great Ridge’, in his Peak & Pennines guide of 1966.

- Roly Smith

And if there’s a finer ridge in the Peak – admittedly in an area not blessed with too many– I’ve yet to find it. This 2½ mile promenade, which rarely drops below the 1,200-foot contour, takes you along the boundary between the White and Dark Peaks, with outstanding views of both.

To the north, across the green Vale of Edale, lie the brooding heights of the Kinder massif and the highest point of the Peak, while to the south the view extends across castle-crowned Castleton and The Winnats Pass to the White Peak plateau and east down the verdant Hope Valley towards the Eastern Moors.