The Roaches and Dane Valley, Peak District: B Walk (BOOKING ESSENTIAL)

B WALK DESCRIPTION: This is a walk of two halves: a ridge walk and a valley walk. We start from the peakland village of Upper Hulme and soon follow a pretty streamside path before turning off to approach the Roaches ridge.  The landscape now takes on a different character, rocky in places as we follow a path to the ascent of the ridge.  We pick our way through the wide well used slabby hill side which flattens out for a while as we reach an attractive area of tall forest trees. We then reach a point where we leave the forest and make the remainder of the ascent to the ridge itself. Walkers should be aware at this point that though this part of the ascent is short, it’s best described as a rocky gully with some large boulders. The rocks are perfectly stable and safe, there is no exposure and no technical expertise is needed.  All that is required is concentration.  It’s not too daunting but participants should be aware of the nature of this gully. Then on reaching the ridge everything suddenly opens up and we are rewarded with magnificent views in all directions. We proceed along the ridge which is mostly flat with a bit of up and down here and there (nothing steep!) sometimes walking on flat slabs, sometimes firm surface, and the views stay with us for a long stretch - it is most enjoyable walking.  At some stage we will have our picnic lunches – no shortage of beautiful picnic spots! We descend for the village of Danebridge passing through what was a forested area now largely felled so we follow what has now become a forestry road.  At Danebridge we take a break at the Wincle microbrewery. After this break we follow the Dane Valley for largely the remainder of the walk, a wide valley initially crossing fields alongside the fast flowing River Dane a steep hill soaring above the valley.  Quite impressive. Finally, we leave the river and slowly ascend a very firm farm track through pleasant countryside finishing with field tracks into the village of Rushton Spencer where our coach awaits us. Walk distance: 9 miles, Total ascent:1,250 feet . Picnic lunch with break later at local microbrewery. Leader: Brenda Cameron.