This is my third and last hike in the Peak District National Park, this time starting from Snake Pass – a much higher starting point than my previous two walks (Kinder Scout mass trespass route and Jacobs Ladder to Kinder Low). It’s a different trailhead – but not a different trail. I am (again) on the Pennine Way, which traverses the national park, this time across Bleaklow which is a largely peat covered, gritstone moorland.
I soon veer off this hiking highway, branching left after about 0.8km onto a lesser and unsignposted trail which ascends gently up the Crooked Clough.
On the opposite side of the clough (valley) is a small waterfall.
The trail crosses the stream above the waterfall, and continues to ascend up the side of the now very broad valley.
As the trail climbs towards the top of the plateau, there are views of Manchester out to the west.
At the top of the hill is the Higher Shelf Stones trig, which is the third highest point in the Peak District at 621 metres. Although it’s more plateau than hill, it feels a little more like a summit than Kinder Low or The Edge Trig and there are some great views towards Manchester and over the Kinder Scout plateau.
From the trig I drop down slightly as I follow a trail that heads towards the east.
It’s less than 300m to the site of a B-29 Superfortress crash, where the plane “Overexposed” crashed due to poor visibility during a routine flight, killing all 13 crew members. Also referred to as the “Bleaklow Bomber”, the B-29 Superfortress belonged to the 16th Photographic Reconnaissance of the US Air Force, and had been used to photograph nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll (hence its nicknamed “Over Exposed”).
As the sleek silver and black machine slipped into the overcast skies of Lincolnshire, nobody suspected that it might never return. Ideally, Over Exposed should have touched down at Burtonwood around 1035hrs… but it didn’t. And while not unusual (the weather wasn’t ideal; perhaps Tanner had decided to fly around it or turned back for home?), concern grew gradually – especially when it was realised no one at either Burtonwood or Scampton had heard from the aeroplane.
After an hour, it was apparent that something had happened to 44-61999. With all agencies alerted that an aircraft was unaccounted for, and despite the weather getting worse by the minute, the 16th PRS scrambled another RB-29A out of Scampton to begin a search. Before long, it was reported that burning wreckage could be seen on the high ground at Bleaklow – some 31 miles to the east of Burtonwood. It was just after 1500hrs.
The wreckage, while scattered over a fairly large area, is still surprisingly well-preserved.
From the Bleaklow Bomber B-29 wreck I continue pretty much directly north, following a very minor and occasionally boggy trail up to the Hern Stones. Named after the Old English word “hēarn,” meaning a heap or pile of stones, the Hern Stones look like a heap of stones… it’s also the only spot on this walk where there is a bit of shade, so I take a short break here.
Another 600m to the north are the Wain Stones, near the top of Bleaklow Hill.
The Wain Stones – also known as the Kissing Stones (as they look like two people kissing from certain angles – are also huge gritstone boulders.
It’s only a couple of metres from the Wain Stones to Bleaklow Head (633m), which is the second-highest point in Derbyshire and one of three summits on this plateau above 2,000 feet (the others being Bleaklow Stones and Higher Shelf Stones). It’s also a “Hewitt”, defined by Alan Dawson in his 1992 book The Relative Hills of Britain as “hills in England, Wales and Ireland over two thousand feet 2,000 feet (609.6m) in height”. It’s a pretty unimpressive summit, marked by a large rock cairn but not offering much of a view from the middle of the Bleaklow plateau.
The Pennine Way crosses Bleaklow, and I take this trail for the return route to Snake Pass. (I do make a small detour back to the Wain Stones, to enjoy another short break in this shaded spot!)
While the quality of the Pennine Way varies a little – it’s a bit eroded in spots – it’s always very easy to follow with no boggy sections.
The downside of the famous Pennine Way is that while it’s a well-maintained trail, it’s also very popular and I encounter a lot more people as I make my way back down to Snake Road.
This is one of the shorter loop hikes you can do in the Peak District National Park, and a relatively easy one as the Snake Pass trailhead is at 510m elevation (compared to 230m at Hayfield and 250m at Barber Booth). It’s also been a pleasant loop, and nothing like what Wainwright described as:
an inhospitable wilderness of peatbogs over which progress on foot is very arduous. The Pennine Way in fact lets walkers off lightly, touching only the fringe of this black desert. Nobody loves Bleaklow. All who get on it are glad to get off.
Alfred Wainwright in the Pennine Way Companion
Getting to Bleaklow Head
Many of the Bleaklow Head loop walks start at the town of Glossop, which add a couple of hundred metres elevation gain. Snake Pass on Snake Road provides easy access to the Pennine Way, and a number of different loop walks you can do on the Bleaklow plateau. Snake Pass is 4.2 miles / 6.8km (8min drive) from Glossop and about 18 miles / 29km (35min drive) from Manchester.
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