Tuesday August 19th

Combs Moss and Castle Naze from Buxton

In preparation for our forthcoming walking trip to The Dolomites, we decided to see if we could manage three walks on successive days- this was the first!

The Walking in the Peak District - White Peak West Cicerone Guide said that the views were panoramic, something that we looked forward to, and that the fort at Castle Naze was not visible from below and we looked forward to seeing both.

Unfortunately the cloud was down so, for the first part of the walk, the views weren't that great. The walk started from a quiet residential road in Buxton (there were some quite impressive stone-built houses) and goes up past a couple of overgrown and green reservoirs. The woods ("Light Wood") are a nature reserve financed by Nestlé, possibly to engender goodwill from the spa town. Hopefully, not as a supply to their bottled water, looking at the state of the reservoirs. There's a fairly steep but clear path up to the path running north-east along the edge of Combs Moss, after which the walking is fairly level.

On the way up from Light Wood and the reservoirs

 The path around this side of the plateau is nice and even with the occasional spot for a breather.

Ruined building on Black Edge

Most of our views initially were of the vast quarries which are not, fortunately, visible from Kinder or the surrounding roads. Later on, we could see Mount Famine, South Head and (dimly) Kinder itself.

Above the crags of Short Edge

We had our lunch in the comparative shelter of a wall on Short Edge before going on the fort's ramparts of Castle Naze. After passing the fort, we were onto the western edge of Combs Moss with many steep and impressive crags.

Looking north along the edge of Combs Moss

The path here wove in and out of the wall running along the edge- sometimes obscured by bracken and quite uneven. We agreed that, if the paths inside and outside of the walls were consolidated (preferable outside the wall), it would have been both easier underfoot and consistently spectacular.

We rounded the south western corner of the plateau above White Hall, walking along to the wind turbine above Moss House Farm with the Midshires Way running below us along the route of a Roman road. We were a little uncertain of the way back down to our starting point as David had left the guidebook in the car- all that he could remember was the description of a gap in the wall with a steel gate. We speculated that the gate had been replaced with a wooden stile (which turned out to be the case) but continued on to descend steeply through the woods, past the old waterworks, and back to the car.

We agreed that this was a good walk (8.7 miles with 365m ascent) with atmosphere and not too far from home, and that we should bear it in mind for the future.



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