Plan your walk |
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DISTANCE: 4 miles (6.4km) TIME: 2 hours START/END: SK042786 TERRAIN: Moderate; muddy sections MAPS: |
Follow the Dove Holes road away from the front of the Beehive Inn. ¼ mile (400m).
Where the road bears left, turn right along a lane through Rye Flatt farmyard.
Viewpoint. The grouse moor of Combs Moss is in front. To the left are the crags of Castle Naze, a favourite training ground for local rock climbers. Behind the rocks and out of sight, a solid earthen bank marks the limits of an Iron Age fort. Parts of the moor have access for ‘Right to Roam’.
A few yards beyond a modern bungalow where the lane bears left to Allstone Lee Farm, continue ahead through a gate and along a field path signposted to White Hall.
Cross two adjacent footbridges, one stone and the other wood. Climb a series of fields using stiles and gateways.
Viewpoint. The slopes below the building on the skyline to the left are covered by bracken which will not grow on the windy heights beyond the moorland edge. That region is given over to heather and bilberry.
Turn sharp right through Combshead farmyard. Go through a gateway and turn left uphill for about ½ mile (800m) beside a wire fence above a shallow gully. Keep to the pathless route by using stiles in field boundaries.
Go through a gate and turn right for about ½ mile (800m) on to a moorland road, then right again beyond the hall. After 250yds (230m) keep left at a road junction.
White Hall is an Outdoor Pursuits Centre run by Derbyshire County Council and was the first Outdoor Education Centre to be established in the country.
The road follows the route between Roman Arnemetia (Buxton) and Mancunium (Manchester).
Turn right opposite the modernised farmhouse of Wainstones. Go past a ruined barn and out along the rough field track beneath a stony ridge. ½ mile (800m).
Viewpoint. Combs village fits snugly in a wide hollow beneath Combs Moss. In the distance, to your half left, is Kinder Scout and its outliers.
After crossing three rough fields, bear right downhill to a walled lane. Follow it left to Haylee Farm. Go right, through the farmyard and left along a leafy lane.
Turn right at the lane end and follow the road back to the village.
