White Peak Trails and Cycle Routes

Buxton (6 miles) Pennine Bridleway Continuation Choose a route of route 68 54 National cycle route numbers Steep descent There’s plenty of choice of routes to cycle whether you’re planning a Trail Very Steep descent short ride for an hour or so, or you would like a longer outing: End of 1.5 To Bakewell Other off road routes P Car park with picnic site High Peak Trail The High Peak Trail is 17½ miles long between Dowlow (at the Buxton 68 Monyash Routes using minor road WC Toilet B5055 end – just 6 miles short of the town) and High Peak Junction (close to Hurdlow Main road Information point A515 Cromford). P Other minor roads Cycle Hire Longnor Tunnel The Tissington Trail joins the High Peak Trail at Parsley Hay and runs 13 2 2.5 Distances shown in miles between red circles miles south to Ashbourne.

Dove Valley Route 54 joins Middleton Top to Tissington via about 10 miles of B5053 You are advised not to cycle down steep inclines on the Trails country roads. There is an additional route around Carsington Water of Parsley Hay Newhaven Tunnel about 8 miles. P WC 54C H The Manifold Track is a 9 mile tarmac track along a disused railway 4.5 2 ig h from Hulme End to Waterhouses. A section between Swainsley and P e a k Wetton Mill is used by traffic (single track) and contains a tunnel 100m T ra long at Swainsley; this is illuminated but still quite dark with small passing Hartington il Station 2.5 Friden P places to avoid vehicles. The Manifold Track Hartington WC 6 P This was the Leek and Manifold Valley WC P Newhaven www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/cycle Light Railway. It was built in 1904 to Biggin Hulme End Beresford Dale 2.5 transport dairy products from the 2.5

P WC B5054 54 54B Matlock l

valley to the main railway south of i 54 To Bakewell Waterhouses. It was a ‘light railway’ 4.5 a 3 Tr Minninglow P because it used much narrower track n Matlock Bath o t 5 A6 than the ‘standard gauge’ of mainline g n i s 4 s railways. The owners also hoped that Swainsley Tunnel i T Cromford Wharf the old copper mines at Ecton would re- B5056 P WC open - but they never did. The railway 54 Cromford High Peak Junction 54 A5012 C closed in 1934. One section of the r Wetton Mill om P WC trackbed became a new road to Wetton Longcliffe for P WC 6.5 d Canal Mill and the rest became a walking and Alstonefield Middleton Top 1 1.5 To Ambergate, Derby cycling route. The old station at Hulme P WC End of Black Rocks High Peak Trail End has been preserved and is now a Alsop P P WC Visitor Information Centre. Parwich Hopton B5035 3 54A Tunnel 2 Wirksworth The High Peak Trail Brassington Hopton The Cromford and High Peak Railway was one of the first 68 1 railways in the world. It was built between 1825 and 1830

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a B5023 to link the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge (north of r Bradbourne Sheepwash 54A T B5056 Buxton) to the Cromford Canal – a distance of 33 miles. The

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f 2 railway itself was designed like a canal. On the flat sections the i Tissington n 54A

a wagons were pulled by horses. Large steam powered beam 1.5 P WC 4 M Ilam Thorpe engines in ‘engine houses’ pulled the wagons up the steep Carsington Water Waterhouses P ‘inclines’ using cables (on a canal the inclines would have been Fenny Bentley P WC locks). P WC Carsington A523 2 Reservoir At Middleton Top the engine house with its massive beam engine is open for visitors to wonder at (telephone 01629 823204 for details of open days). The railway was adapted B5035 2 Millfields over the years but finally closed completely in 1967. The A515 The Tissington Trail P WC section south of Buxton was then converted to the High Peak Trail. This was one of the last of the Victorian railways – it opened in 1899. It supplied milk to London and several quarries were Mapleton Lane Carsington Water opened along the track sending limestone to the industrial P WC 0.25 This 2 mile-long reservoir, managed by Severn Trent Water, was opened in areas. The Trail was created after the railway closed in 1967. Tunnel 1992 as an emergency reserve of water for Derby and the East Midlands. The signal box at Hartington Station has been preserved. You End of Cyclists can make a complete circuit of the reservoir – over 8 miles long – can go inside and see how it worked. At its southern end Tissington Trail Ashbourne crossing the dam and passing through the villages of Carsington and Hopton. the Trail goes into a 600 metre long tunnel to emerge in the Continuation of route 68 P WC There are wildlife viewing points around the shore. A large modern Visitor centre of Ashbourne. To Derby Centre includes a children’s play area, watersports centre, restaurant and shops.

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