4 Peak District
Lum Edge & Revidge
A tick-list summit to bag, a gritstone edge, rough moorland, tussocky boggy paths and wide-open skies... and no crowds on this Peak District circuit!
MOORLAND CIRCUIT
DIFFICULTY MEDIUM
DISTANCE 11KM
TIME 3 HOURS
TOTAL ASCENT 265M
If you wish to avoid the summer crowds when Hartington and Longnor are heaving, seek out a quiet and rather forgotten corner of the Staffordshire moorlands. It’s entirely possible you may not encounter another walker until you reach the ‘Ethel’ of Revidge, with its fabulous views across to Ecton and the Manifold valley.
Ethels? They’re the Peak District’s answer to Wainwrights. Ethels are a relatively new (2021) tick-list of 95 Peak District tops, created in honour of Ethel Haythornthwaite, an early 20th century pioneer campaigner for countryside access and protection. Most are 400m or above, or prominent lower hills in their own right; at exactly 400m high, Revidge just squeaks in on elevation.
Being off the beaten track has its challenges – paths are often rough, poorly maintained and untracked. Despite its low altitude this is one for dry conditions. A steep, slippery woodland slope gives a brief but entertaining challenge, and wetland tracks are plenty damp enough in the ‘dry’! In summer, hay meadows burst into flower and, on Lum Edge, purple heather surrounds a little-known low edge of gritstone boulders with views to the dragons-back summit of Chrome Hill.
1 SK085587 From the Greyhound Inn, walk up Leek Road until the road bends right just after the final houses, follow a farm track straight ahead. Pass a house, then take a small waymarked gate rightwards into little-tracked hay meadows. Head roughly west to a gate, bend left on a narrow grassy path by the wall, then fork right to pass between two former stone gateposts.
2 SK075589 Cross a stream awkwardly on a rickety bridge, veer diagonally left over pathless grassy meadow, then ford a boggy watercourse. Stay by the wall to your right over untracked hay meadows. In the third field veer left around a (potentially overgrown) deep drain.
3 SK069588 Head briefly right along a road, then take the second footpath left onto a track. Bend right at a green footpath waymarker, then cross boggy pasture fields. Turn left onto a track, descending to a gateway across the track. Through the gate, turn rightwards to another farm track. Pass a further ruined
