Kinder South Evening Walk

Tuesday 13th August 2013 

An evening walk up Grindsbrook Clough to reach the Kinder Plateau 

Distance: 8.5km; Ascent: 410m; Dry, but breezy on the edge; Solo

See tracked route in new window

Following Lynsey's walk up Grindsbrook Clough last week, I realised that it was well over 3 years since I had last walked up onto Kinder Scout that way so I decided to head that way this evening.  The Edale car park was pretty much deserted as I set off walking shortly after 7:30pm and headed up through the village, past the The Old Nags Head and out into the countryside.

Heading towards Grindsbrook Clough

The flagged path led across the fields below The Nab, followed by a short section of woodland before crossing the burn exiting Golden Clough, which marked the start of open country.

Bridge over Golden Clough burn

The track up Grindsbrook Clough was surrounded by lots of heather in full purple bloom, which is one of the things I like most about moorland walking at this time of year :-)

The track through the heather

Heather

As I ascended up the track the views back down the clough opened out and I began to see the Lose Hill - Mam Tor ridge on the other side of the Vale of Edale.  Around a kilometre after crossing Golden Clough the path deteriorated and dropped down to the brook.

Looking down Grindsbrook Clough

Grinds Brook

I ascended up the narrowing clough, sometimes on the left of the brook, sometimes on the right and sometimes scrambling over the boulders in the brook itself.  By the time I reached the fork near the top of the clough the light was beginning to fade, so I decided to ascend the ground to the right of the right-hand branch to gain the plateau-edge path.

Looking E along the southern edge of Kinder

Looking down into Grindsbrook Clough at dusk

Dusk sky over Kinder plateau

Unfortunately I was around 15 minutes too late to catch a glimpse of sunset from the plateau, but there were still impressive views and lovely dusk skies.  I headed east along the southern edge of the plateau, past the climbing crags of Upper Tor and Nether Tor to reach the top of Golden Clough - around now I donned my head torch as there was very little light left in the sky.

Looking towards Grindslow Knoll

The last light of the day over Grindslow Knoll

I began to descend from the plateau, traversing to the west of Ringing Roger to reach The Nab, from where a good path brought me back down to my route of ascent and thence Edale village.  I reached the car shortly after 10pm after another good evening walk :-)

See also my Social Hiking live map from the walk.