Derwent Heritage Trail - Edale to Matlock (★★★★☆)

For this walk, I should be clear from the off, that whilst my walk today does start in Edale - the Derwent Heritage Trail does not. 

It starts at Ladybower Reservoir, 4 or 5 miles to the east of Edale - and this start point is easily accessible via Bamford train station.

But I am always tempted by the idea of joining walks up - and with plans to walk the Pennine Way from Edale at some point, it seems logical to start at Edale - and explore the area around Ladybower Reservoir, before starting the main walk.

And so today I find myself getting off the train at Edale station, and then turn left out of the start - and right onto what proves to be a very good path - that runs along to Nether Booth (it is pretty obvious to find on the map).

And if you haven't been to Edale before, what comes to mind as you stand in Edale is the concept of hills, and big hills.

To the north, the Pennine Way heads up Jacob's Ladder to Kinder Scout, across the valley from us lies Lord's Seat and Mam Tor, and to the east of us lies Nether Moor and Win Hill.

Some of the hills walking out from Edale

On this track, the path is surprisingly busy - with lots of walkers carrying heavy packs going the other way. 

This I do wonder about, as having walked further along the Pennine Way, there were not too many walkers out and about further up the trail.

That suggests that these are not all Pennine Way hikers, but there looks to be lots of walking to be done in this area - so maybe they are just exploring, aided by the rather handy rail links this area offers. 

But in any case, at Nether Booth I turn onto the road - and here my thoughts turn to the best route to reach the start of the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail.

Perhaps wrongly, I ignore the first promising looking path near Clough Farm - but I do wonder if this might have been the best path, as it looked to take a fairly attractive route, and gets you off the road nice and early.

Instead I head on, and - without there being too much traffic on the road - find a second good route that heads past Carr House - and then through the farmyard at Edale End - before turning left, and up onto the ridge above.

From here it is time to start climbing - and it is a very big climb up through the sheep fields. So much so that over time the hills that loomed above, slowly start to sit more and more on the same level.

With phase 1 of the climb done the hills are starting to get smaller

As the climb goes on, the ascent starts to get less steep - and eventually it is time to join up with the path running along the ridge - albeit still a decent way below the very top of the ridge.

The path I decide to follow is the one marked on the map as the Roman Road - although there is a track further above that in hindsight may have been a better path. But as it is, I head along that old Roman Road (which used to run from Glossop round to Hope Valley), and this is a good quality track - although one that slowly takes me down to a lower point on the ridge.

I had hoped on being able to cut across early on a footpath that was visible on the map, but in reality that footpath is buried in a mass of bracken - and have to settle for continuing to lose height on this path, before turning back on a new track, that heads up from Fulwood Stile Farm.

But although I climb bits of the ridge twice, the path is very good - and the views have also been wonderful along this stretch of walking.

And when I do reach the top (with this being a good route up to Win Hill from Hope train station), I find myself meeting up with a clear track along the ridge - with walkers ahead of me following this round towards Win Hill.

On the way back up the ridge

Now I can just follow these walkers and rely on their knowledge of the area - and this route takes us along Hope Brink, and Thornhill Brink - and from here we get some great views out over the surrounding area.

The surrounding hills aren't so high from this ridge

This path is continuing to gain height all the time, and after a bit of a kick up, the first views out over Ladybower Reservoir appear. 

Throughout this section of path, we never get a full view of the reservoir, as there is always a bit of the ridge in the way, but we do look out over different sections as we head up, and continue to gain height.

Eventually Win Hill Pike comes into view - and it is an unusual hill, as it is only a very small mound, which is sat upon a considerably larger ridge. 

As a result, climbing the actual hill at Win Hill only really takes a matter of seconds - with the real climb being that required to reach the hill.

This mini-mound is known by the name of Win Hill Pike - aka the Pimple - and while I couldn't find any explanation as to why it has such an odd shape, it is certainly a popular hill for walkers - and I join a bit of a crowd as I reach the hill.

Looking towards the reservoir

Looking at the path behind

Having cleared Win Hill Pike, the path continues on in a straight line, and starts to drop down into the woods - where I turn to the left to head through the forest, and then come out next to the reservoir.

From here I turn right, and then join the reservoir - just before the dam - and upon reaching the dam I join up with the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail for the first time.

The dam itself is pretty impressive - but with water levels not being particularly high, I am unable to watch the famous plughole in action.

Reaching the dam

An empty plughole

So far we have walked 7.3 miles from Edale train station and taken in about 1,400 feet of ascent - whilst we could have reduced this to 2.2 miles and 256 feet by coming from Bamford train station directly.

However - I feel the pictures justify the extra 5 miles (and quite a lot of climbing) - and now we turn out back on the reservoir, and start to head southalong a cycle trail. 

As we continue along this trail, we quickly pass the turn off for Bamford train station - and begin our route along the Derwent Valley.

Here the route is, admittedly, a little unexciting - as many of these shared walking and cycle route can be - but there are at least plenty of carved animals to keep us company, and for us to try and spot along the way.

Mr Squirrel

Mrs Boar

Mr Marten

Mrs Osprey

The reason for the carvings it not entirely clear. A sign does say that there is an aim to populate this area with those animals, but I do wonder whether boars are really going to be released along a popular walking trail.

As it is though, after crossing the road near Bamford you do get the chance to spot a real unusual animal - in the form of a very friendly Emu.

A friendly emu

Having made friends for life with this emu, and its donkey companion (the donkey really just wanted some food, but the emu's friendship seemed a bit more genuine) - the path continues onwards, and we are now genuinely following the River Derwent - rather just a cycle trail in the general vicinity.

And as a result the walking is now a lot more enjoyable, with a quite and pleasant walk along the river to the village of Leadmill.

Walking along the river (to the right as I'm looking back)

At Leadmill, the path crosses over the river - and here it is a busy stretch with many people out and about for a walk.

The onward route is now following the path of the parallel train line - and every now and then a train heads past, but otherwise it is quiet and pleasant walk, that dips in and out of the trees as it heads in a southerly direction.

Heading through the trees

And after a few more enjoyable sections along the river, the path starts to close in on the pretty village of Froggatt.

Closing in on Froggatt

This proves to be a very pretty village (there are no pictures here as I generally avoid photoing people's homes) - and here the path crosses over the river, and continues on along a backwater of the River Derwent - before being re-united with the full river at Calver. 

Next up we head through some of the older industrial sections - but whilst there is some evidence of this history, much of this history is pretty ruined and hard to find or identify.

But generally the walk starts to quieten down, with the next highlight being some cows we meet on our way into Baslow - and these are friendly cows, with one coming over to give me a bit of a lick.

Making new friends

After crossing over the river at Baslow, and completing a diversion off through the towns pretty streets, the path heads south once again - and enters Chatsworth Park.

This is a very welcome new arrival to this walk - and the path itself heads through the estate, with great views across to the house as we first head towards it and then pass it by (it is quite a large park).

Chatsworth Park

A rather fancy bridge

Chatsworth House

The house itself has been used in a number of films and TV series, including the lesser version of Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 film, rather than the superior 1995 version). 

That 1995 version was filmed at Lyme Park, on the other side of the Peak District - which is thought to be the original inspiration for Pemberley - but we are still in the right part of the world for a 19th century tour of Derbyshire that stops off at the home of Mr Darcey.

This is a hugely impressive house, and clearly popular with visitors. 

But when I looked it up, a visit to the house is rather expensive - it is less to just look round the gardens - but the grounds seem to be free to roam about in, and are an excellent walk. And at the end of the day, who needs to actually go in the house.

And with the house now behind me, the onward route is much quieter - and here I took the chance to stop at some benches, surrounded by sheep (I presumably this Chatsworth Grass is the sheep equivalent of shopping at Waitrose). And once more I wonder if sheep and cows enjoy their surroundings, or if they just want to get on with having some food.

But leaving these thoughts behind - and eventually having exited the park - the next section continues across some quiet fields, on the way to Rowsley.

Walking the fields to Rowsley

This section of path has been flagged by some to be impassable on the map - and walking through this field with a dog might be problematic, as the cows are across the path - but as a walker I have no issues and the cows are all very well behaved.

And upon reaching the end of the field I find an open gate - with the cows seemingly having just been walked up into the field. 

Here I'm not sure what to do, as there are clearly no more cows coming through - and the gate remains open - but in the end I close the gate, and then on my way into Rowsley spot the farm, who wanders off having noted that the gate is now closed (so I guess this was the right thing to do?).

But in any case, from here I cross over the river, and the path continues along on the far side of the River Derwent.

But by now we are on the edge of Matlock, and here the riverside route has a lesser quality - giving of vibes of a nature reserve that was very reluctantly built as part of a housing development - - and I do wonder if the cycle path running along the train line would have been a nicer route through this section.

But crossing over the river into Darley Bridge - the path continues on along a quiet road that has a reasonable amount of foot traffic out for a walk - and also some horses out for a ride. 

Soon though, we turn off this quiet road and head along our final path - squeezed between some industrial areas to the right, and a heavily graffitied river to the left. 

But it is not far until we reach Matlock - and my finishing point for the night.

It would have been an option to continue on the cycle path from Rowsley - which heads into Matlock on the far side of the River Derwent - and maybe that would be a better route into Matlock, as this final section gets a bit grotty on it's final stretch.

Total Distance: 27.9 miles (20.6 miles on the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail)

Total Ascent: 2,235 feet (837 feet on the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail)

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ★ / 5

To be honest, I don't think I would have enjoyed this walk as much if I had started from Bamford - as the combination of the river and the peaks made for a good all round experience. As a result, this would probably only be a 3-star walk starting from Bamford.

Click the following link to see the write up for the following day - walking from Matlock to Derby along the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 110 and 119 OS Landranger maps (links redirect to Amazon). The route was easy to follow from the map and pretty well way marked by the purple and yellow arrows on signs.