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I know this area has been discussed a little before but i'm looking for some suggestions for a nice local loop from Charlestown out onto the moors, nothing super crazy, but some nice fun decents/singletrack would be great.
Strava heat maps and segment explorer shows theres riding to be had, but in November i'm not sure how good it will be, any suggestions? 15-25 miles would be about right.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
The proper moor to the East (Kinder, Bleaklow) is all footpaths over the sacred peat, so isn't really a riding area like other parts of the Peak - you would need a Glossop local to put you in the picture there. Some proper bogland as well - tell someone where you are going if you fancy a winter explore up there.
To the West of the Hayfield main rd there is loads of good stuff (moorland but a lot of farms and civilisation) but it's quite intricate as you can see from the OS map. I can suggest some stuff - you might do a triangle that linked Charlestown to the Mellor cross or the GOlf club / fox descent then the Snake path / Middle moor descent, but it's hard to describe and easier if someone puts up a gpx route (mine all start from Manchester). Plenty on here who know that area.
Did they ever sort out the Pennine Bridleway route around Glossop?
A few more bridleways in this area would be useful.
Charlesworth. Charlestown is near Salford. There is a sneaky footpath in between the houses on the road going up toward Monks Road that takes you out to the bridleway below Robin Hood's Picking Rods. You can then go down toward Rowarth, a little bit of road (Shiloh Road) toward Mellor and then head off to Mellor Church or go back on yourself and pass the Picking Rods for Hayfield or Lantern Pike.
I asssumed he meant the Charlestown just south of Glossop. The one near Chunal . . .
Which would make sense only it's not called Charlestown, its name is Charlesworth. Next to Chisworth. Just over the hill from my house. Just over the way from Chunal.
[url] https://www.google.com/maps/search/charlesworth/@53.4520324,-1.9455785,13z/data=!3m1!4b1 [/url]
Charlesworth, next to Chisworth, just up the road from Chunal, near Glossop.
Actually....(insert embarrassed face and with thanks to NBT).....there actually is a Charlestown...just up the road from Charlesworth. My apologies. The footpath etc that i was describing are at Charlesworth....
Did they ever sort out the Pennine Bridleway route around Glossop?
A few more bridleways in this area would be useful.
No, there's still a campaigning FB group trying to instigate some sort of missing link. At the moment, the route climbs out of Simmondley on High Lane, which is a nasty. too narrow, twisty thing that would be fine it if weren't a rat run over to Charlesworth, Broadbottom and over to the M67.
From there you supposedly climb up the Monk's Road, which is a steep, double chevron, tarmac climb, then pick up the route of the Pennine Bridleway at the second blind-crest you come to, where there's a sort of dirt track running parallel to the road on the lefthand side, where they started extending the existing Pennine Bridleway route but never finished.
Your alternatives are to follow the bridleway on the map out of Charleworth parallel to the Monk's Road, then up the grassy footpath continuation over Coombes Edge then drop back down on the Pennine Bridleway when you hit the main track that leads down to the Picking Rods. Or, if you want to miss High Lane altogether, you can slog up Chunal then turn right onto the Monk's Road at the top. It's not too bad actually, the road's super wide with good sight lines, so while you feel exposed, the A624 at that point is actually pretty good even on a mountain bike.
In honesty, there's still a glaring absence of a legal off-road link between Glossop and Hayfield. You could actually manage a fair chunk using other tracks to reach Charlesworth, but it's a meandering diversion and not really worth the hassle. What's particularly frustrating is that there's a sort of proto-track leading towards Charlesworth from the top of Monk's but it just stops dead.
Charlestown definitely exists - Glossop is a sort of conglomeration of hamlets, like Whitfield, Simmondley, Howardstown, Royston Vasey etc. Most people think of 'Chunal' as being the main road towards Hayfield btw, but I think technically it's the small hamlet on the righthand side of the road as you climb out of Glossop.
The High Lane stretch - the road, not the 'village' on the A6 - really needs sorting out. It's bad enough on a bike, it would be horrible on a horse I think.
https://www.change.org/p/derbyshire-county-council-bridge-the-pennine-bridleway-gap
This is the Change petition aimed at bridging the Pennine Bridlway gap btw.
And the FB group home:
If I were coming from outside the area, I'd either start in Hayfield or park up on the obvious side-turn off the Monk's Road, which also happens to be on the Pennine Bridleway route. On the train, you're arguably better off going to New Mills rather than Glossop and starting from there. It's just easier tbh
Never did understand the PBW around Glossop - so many unconnected green rhomboids on the OS map, is the route from Dinting Vale through Horse Clough the aspirational bridleway they hope to complete?
The existing route splits in two after Swineshaw res and seems to terminate in the fine hamlet of Gamesley.
This is the FB group's proposed route map etc:
The dotted line in purple is the proposed route, so yes, Horse Clough.
Thank you, BWD - some very interesting information!
No worries. I don't have much faith that anything will change any time soon - I might write to the local MP Ruth George though, she was newly elected at the last election and is brilliantly responsive and plugged in to local issues. It's odd really, the Pennine Bridleway people went to huge efforts to micro-landscape bits of the route above Hayfield, but the Glossop Gap has just sat there for years now.
It's a real shame. If you're local and ingenious you can work round a lot of it, but anyone trying to follow the route of the trail from scratch will likely find the current situation really confusing. It's just wrong that the route spits cyclists and horse-riders out onto often busy roads with totally inadequate sign-posting. Just really unpleasant and potentially dangerous.
Exactly what BWD said, hard for someone not local to find a safe and fun route anywhere, I can usually use a OS map and google with a bit of strava segments to find myself a decent bit of riding but I was really struggling with this one. Thanks for all your help! 🙂