They call it the 'Shivering Mountain', for Mam Tor, one of the wonders of the Peak District, is always falling down. Made of a crumbling sandwich of gritstone and shale its steep face is in constant movement. Even modern engineering is powerless and, after numerous and increasingly futile efforts to repair the route, the A625 was finally abandoned in 1979 after a cataclysmic upheaval that looks like the results of an earthquake. Mam Tor is the first objective and it just has to be climbed. For some this is the objective and the end of their walk, but the continuation is even better along the Great Ridge, a magnificent airy walk, high above the Vale of Edale and the pastoral fields of the Hope Valley. Then to finish you traverse the slopes along ancient tracks and paths until you come face to face with the remains of the road with its layers of tarmac piled in increasingly desperate efforts to defy nature.
LOCATION: Four miles east of Chapel-en-le-Frith
START: From A625 follow signs to Blue John Cavern, roadside parking Grid ref: SK129832 Postcode: S33 8WA
DISTANCE: 5.5 (or 4) miles
GRADE: Moderate
TIME: 3 hours
MAP: Outdoor Leisure - Dark Peak Landranger 110
REFRESHMENTS: Blue John Cafe
EN ROUTE: Mam Nick, Lose Hill, Back Tor, Brockett Booth Plantation
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News