01st: Trespass Trail
Last Sunday saw 22 of us set off from New Mills station to walk the
Trespass Trail, a way marked 14 route established to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of the Kinder Mass Trespass in 1932. Despite some dark
clouds it remained largely dry, and very warm, all day. Late morning saw
some confusion when we realised that the reason Joan thought there were
only 21 people on the walk was because we had in fact last someone, and
no one could remember when they were last seen! After some debate about
the leader retracing our route, we decided to carry on, only to find
the missing person sat outside the pub in Rowarth knocking back the
beer. We carried on to Little Hayfield for a welcome lunch stop and pub
stop at the Lantern Pike. After that it was uphill part way up Williams
Clough (losing a few more people on the way) to the approximate spot
where the trespassers encountered the Duke of Devonshire’s gamekeepers
on the original Trespass. After that it was downhill all the way, back
to Hayfield and along the Sett Valley Trail to New Mills, picking up
assorted folk on the way, to finish with 22 people again.
For those
feeling tired after the walk, while the leaflet stated the route as 14
miles, when we measured the route out, including the extra part through
New Mills, it came out as 15.9 miles in total
Helen & Colin
