[Closed] Hayfield advice

Which way out of Hayfield are you going?
SE, you go up Highgate Road, veer left onto a gravel farm track / road up towards South Head. It's the start of the Jacobs Ladder route if you're going anti-clockwise around it (up Jacobs). However there are options to cut off right and go up to Chinley Churn or cut off left and descend Coldwell Clough to Hayfield campsite.

Heading E then NE, you go along Kinder Road towards Kinder Res then you can either go left up the narrow steep cobbles or right up Edale Road which eventually takes you to the bottom of Coldwell Clough (see above) and onwards up the rocky/gravel road to Edale Cross. This is the start of the Jacobs Ladder route if you do it clockwise (down Jacobs).

If you want to go over to New Mills, the MTB option is:
SE up Highgate Road, veer left onto the off-road. At the cross roads (left to Coldwell clough, right to the main road), go R and descend the gravel track to the main road. L then R onto and off the main road and you come to top of Maynestone Road. [url= https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3619031,-1.9296953,3a,75y,275.96h,65.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUbtkXmlpgacj1Blv7b3U3Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 ]Streetview[/url]

Go straight up that gravel track, through a front yard (it's a proper BW, they just ask you to walk the bike through the yard) and on up a rutted singletrack climb. There's really only one track there and it takes you to gate and wall. Turn right and follow that all the way down the hill, you fork right onto a steep descent through some woods which pops you out back in Hayfield.

If you go through the gate at the top of the hill, that takes you down into New Mills.

Hard for me to explain. I've come from new mills down the bridleway to the visitor centre.
Cross the road and then it's left and right and then I remember a long tarmac climb for about a mile

That long tarmac climb sounds like Kinder Road

There is a bridleway from that road up to the left which climbs up to 20 trees - that could be described as sandy

Or are you getting as far as the Sportsman pub/campsite?

I'm struggling to visualise it. i know Hayfield very well but your "left and right" description could apply to either of the route options I suggested.

If it was a bastard steep climb up a residential road onto moorland, it's Highgate Road. If it's a more gentle drag with houses on the left and a view out over the hills on the right, past a pub called The Sportsman and through some woodland, it's Kinder Road.

If you can find it on Streetview I'll have a better idea of where you mean and the track(s) you're trying to get to. Or just PM me on here when you want to ride it and I'll show you, I only live down the road from there.

If remember right you go over a style and climb a bit more to a sandy rocky route

If you went over a stile, you weren't on a bridleway. But if you're talking about a 'sandy, rocky route' it's most likely you've gone up Kinder Road for a bit, turned left up the long climb past 20 Trees (19 of them) - bridleway sign at the bottom - to the Shooting Cabin track across Middle Moor - was there a shooting cabin, a bridge and an obvious signpost at the top? The main track heads across a newly rebuilt bridge then along, down some steps to a ford, then bangs along and down to hit the A624 road just after a footbridge.

Or I guess you might have gone up towards the reservoir. Or a bit of both. But if you go over Middle Moor you can then turn right up the permissive footpath up to the junction with the Monk's Road (or ride the hideous road section if you insist) then a bit of tarmac and a left turn at the first obvious road junction at the bottom of a climb, then follow the Pennine Bridleway back to Hayfield from there. Lots of other options, but that's the most likely I guess.

Have a look on a map and it's all pretty obvious. Or it'll be in loads of guidebooks, the best of which is probably the Vertebrate Publishing Dark Peak Trails book:

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/mountain-biking/peak-district-mountain-biking/

Have a look on a map

Is what I'm thinking

Looked at a map and it looks like kinder rd.
Vague memories that I ride up a grassy bank and got to the top and then the rocky niceness started downwards

When you were climbing the grassy bank, was there a reservoir below you to the left? If there was then you've gone along Kinder Road, forked right up Edale Road and then picked up a grassy climb to your right which eventually brings you out on a rocky gravelly track running left/right in front of you. Right is towards Hayfield, left takes you up/along to Edale Cross and then down to Edale via Jacobs Ladder.

If there wasn't a reservoir below you to the left, you've gone along Kinder Road a short way, turned left and up an initially very steep gravel track which becomes more grassy and that's Twenty Trees as @BadlyWiredDog says. Summit of that there's a couple of sandy/rocky tracks, one off left towards Little Hayfield, one off right towards Kinder Res.