Activities To Do In And Around Grindleford

Activities To Do In And Around Grindleford

Walking

There are plenty of walks you can do right from the village. Here are a few favourites in order of length.

1. Village Loop / Community Shop – 5-10 minutes / 1/2 a mile. Start: by the gap in the wall opposite Mount Pleasant Garage.
Head through the gap and down the field. You can either walk through the allotments or skirt around to the right under the large ash tree (there’s a brilliant rope swing in the ash tree). When you get to the river at the bottom simply turn left and follow the path along to the bridge in the Centre of the village. From here you can either turn left and head back along the pavement past the Derwent Gallery, back along to the house, or you can turn right, cross the bridge, and pop into the Community Shop in the Vestry of the Church about a hundred and fifty yards after the traffic lights on the right.

2. Froggatt Edge Loop – 1.5 hours / 4 miles. Start: Bishop Pavilion
Turn left out of the Pavilion car park across the bridge over the river Derwent. Almost immediately take the footpath across the large, flat field, signposted to Froggatt. Froggatt is another village about a mile down the valley, There’s a very old and beautiful stone path through the woods that, oddly, doesn’t follow the river, which take you right into Froggatt village. Along the way you’ll go through a number of stone stiles ‘ gates, pass the ‘Gruffalo Pond’, cross an ancient stone bridge, and get a good mix of ancient woodland and open country. Stop and check out the lovely stone bridge in the middle of Froggatt village before carrying on another few hundred meters to a footpath on the left by a gate. Follow this up through the woods and an open field to cross a main road. On the other side of the road be careful to follow the main path which initially bears right a little. It then meanders up through the woods past a wooden gate, before emerging from a tumble of boulders directly underneath the rock climbing venue of Froggatt Edge. Head right along the path along the base of the edge beneath such classic climbs as Great Slab, Brown’s Eliminate and Chequers Buttress, before the path eventually meets the main path along the top of the edge. Turn left and follow this back, with fantastic views, for about a mile and a half to the main road. If you spot it there’s a stone circle off to the right of the main path about half way along. Take care crossing the main road diagonally right to the woods gate. Steep steps lead down to a small stream where you’ll have to Boulder hop over, before a short climb up the other side. From the top of the climb take a minor path to the left down through a narrow wooden gateway, past an old quarry on the right (Pooh’s Place), and on down through the woods. Keep going down and ignore side paths and you should emerge on a gravel lane which comes out at the church in the village (a hundred yards from where the track meets the road, on the right, is the community shop in the vestry of the church where you can get teas, coffees, and cake after your walk!). To get back to the start just turn left and follow the pavement back.

Extension:

If you fancy keeping low you can continue along the river (either side) from Froggatt down to the bridge between Froggatt and Calver. This is a lovely walk and very peaceful at the beginning and end of the day. A nice loop is to follow the river from Froggatt down one bank and back along the other. It’s about a 3/4 of a mile between the two bridges. The lower bridge marks a good wild swimming spot if the weather is good, but be warned that the river always seems cold!

3. White Edge Loop – 2.5-3 hours / 6 miles. Start: Bishop Pavilion.

Start out as for the Froggatt Loop, but when you get up onto the edge, turn right instead of heading back home. This leads you along the top of Curbar Edge to Curbar Gap (a further mile and a half), a popular spot which almost always plays host to an ice cream van, and sometimes a coffee van. From Curbar Gap go through the wooden gate in the top corner of the car park near the road, follow the grassy track along, then down into a dip, across a brook on some wooden boards (make sure you don’t bear left before the dip), and then steeply up stone steps onto the main footpath which leads back left along White Edge. White Edge is not as craggy and distinct as Froggatt or Curbar, but feels much more wild and remote. You are quite likely to see a herd of deer, perhaps even some rutting stags if you are lucky. There’s a trig point about a quarter of the way along (slightly off to the right) which marks the high point, from which there are some excellent 360 degree views. Follow the footpath along for a couple of miles until you get to a stone wall with a gap in it leading across the path at right angles to it. Turn left along the far side of this wall, and head down through a small stand of Birch trees before heading across a field to the main road where you come out by the excellent Grouse Pub. After you’ve stopped off for a pint (they are happy with dogs children and muddy boots) continue down the main road for 25m until there is the stile on the right. Cross this and follow the faint footpath through the field until you enter the woods. From here follow the network of footpaths down through the woods back to the church / community shop in the village.

 

4. Hathersage ‘ George Mellor’s Cutlery Factory And Kitchen Shop – 1.5 hours / 4 miles. Start: Bishop Pavilion.

One more walk worth describing locally is the flat walk along the river into Hathersage, the next village up the valley. It’s a lovely walk, if a little boggy in the first field, and a little muddy underfoot in the wooded section after rain.  Cross the bridge towards Sheffield and then cross the road almost immediately, opposite the church / community shop. There’s a narrow gate leading into the field. From here it’s easy enough to follow the path, keeping pretty much to the river, all the way into Hathersage. Just before you get into the village of Hathersage the path turns into a tarmacked roads and crosses a couple of cattle grids before coming out on the main road linking the two villages. Cross the road and follow the footpath / pavement into the village, passing along the way the amazing George Mellor’s Kitchen Shop and cutlery factory (and pop in to the see where the modern traffic light was invented!). In Hathersage you will find a bunch of touristy gear shops, cafes, a nice deli (Coleman’s) and a couple of pubs, the pick of which is probably the Scotsman’s Pack (which is tucked away so you’ll have to ask for directions). You can then either reverse your route, or you can walk up through the village for 3/4 of a mile, past the Millstone Pub, and take the motorable farm track (gated) about a 1/4 of a mile past the pub on the right. This leads, after about a mile and a half, back into Grindleford. Actually it leads into Upper Padley, a kind of suburb of Grindleford. There’s a truly magical picnic spot about half way along here where you can eat your lunch amongst a scattering of discarded millstones from the quarry above. Upper Padley has a stunning old chapel with some interesting grounds behind it which are worth a look, and then the infamous Grindleford Station Cafe which does very, very good egg and chips. The quickest way back is to follow the station approach road up to the main road, turn right past the lovely Maynard Hotel, and then down through the village back to the house. It’s almost exactly a mile back from the cafe / station.

Extension:

Above the Millstone Pub on the outskirts of Hathersage is the amazing collection of Millstone Edge, Lawrencefield / Bole Hill Quarry, Surprise View, Mother Cap and Owler Tor and Padley Gorge. All are within realistic walking distance, stunningly beautiful, pretty busy, and also accessible from a car park at Surprise View. You can climb up, or drop down from all these places either through the lovely quiet birch trees and millstones of Lawrencefield / Bole Hill Quarrry, or down the chocolate box, but consequently often busy Padley Gorge, both of which bring you out at the conveniently located Station Cafe in Upper Padley.

Cycling

The best way to explore the local area on bike, either road or mountain, is to explore the segments on Strava. The village organises a cycle sportive and hill climb in September each year, details of each route are listed on the website www.grindlefordgoat.co.uk. The Nanny route is around 60km, the Billy is just over 100km. Both are pretty hilly! If you just have an hour or so, then head south out of the village, and turn right along the now-closed road as you crest the hill on the edge of the village. This used to be the quickest route into the infamous village of Eyam (of plague renown), but the road partly collapsed a few years back and it’s now a lovely quiet walking and cycling route. From Eyam (which has a couple of lovely tea shops, a museum and plenty of interesting historical things to see and read about

(ask about the vinegar stones, they are cool) you can head up past the YHA onto the top of Sir William Hill (from here you can nip back down into Grindlford for a super-quick, if hilly, ride, or you can turn left as you leave the woods, and head along past the amazing Barrel Pub (is there a pub with a better view?), along to Bretton (more subsidence here, but ignore it again as you can walk your bikes around), past the gliding club, and down to the edge of Hathersage where you come out near the Plough pub. From here don’t head back along the main road into Grindlford – it’s narrow, dark, and dangerous, but head in the direction of the village, but turn right after a few hundred meters, and follow this up a steep set of bends and through some lovely, lovely woods along Leam Lane, along to Sir William Hill where a left turn leads steeply down into the village via the lovely Sir William Pub. The whole round can be done inside an hour easily enough if you are fit and is mainly on very quiet roads.

Sadly there are no eqsyoff-road routes out of the village for mountain biking which isa shame as the route along Froggatt and Curbar Edges has been reclassified to allow bikes and is a great combination of great views and quick, flat technical riding. Longshaw Estate, 3 miles out of the village on the way into Sheffield, has a series of relatively newly classified biking paths and is popular with families. For more testing off road routes look up the quarry tracks around Black Harry’s Gate, or head over towards Hathersage, Castleton and Ladybower.

Running

You’d be hard pushed to find better routes to run than the walks that are described above. If you fancy something a little meatier then there’s a race organised in the village each March called the Grindleford Gallop which is a 21 mile route taking in a good variety of the local terrain including a blast through the grounds of Chatsworth House. There’s also the village Fell Race which takes place on the third Thursday in June.

Climbing

The closest climbing to us is up on Froggatt Edge and Yarncliffe Quarry. They are a 30-45 minute walk depending on which route you take and how fast you go, or you can drive over and walk in. Probably best to consult the guidebooks for detailed information on where to park etc. For reference the following crags are also pretty close by:

Strange – 5/10 minute drive depending on which bit you go to Curbar – 5 minutes
Gardoms – 5 minutes
Stoney Middleton – 5 minutes

There are literally hundreds of smaller crags within an hour’s drive, whilst Sheffield has a good concentration of world class climbing walls including The Climbing Works. The Foundry, Awesome Walls and The Depot. If you don’t want to go into Sheffield for one of the bigger walls you could try The Adventure Hub in Bamford which is a ten minute drive.

Swimming

There are swimming pools in Bakewell, Chesterfield and Sheffield, but there’s also the amazing open air lido in Hathersage. There can’t be many public pools with a backdrop and ambience as this place. There’s a timetable online which you ought to check before heading up there as it’s sometimes closed to the public.