Words & Photos Roger Butler

December 06 2010

It’s often said that the Peak District, after Mount Fuji, is the second most popular national park in the world, attracting (or maybe just putting up with) more than 20 million visitors each year.

While it undoubtedly has its tourist honeypots and highlights, it’s still quite possible to walk for hours on end without seeing anyone at all. For solitude I tend to head for the Staffordshire Moorlands, tucked away between Leek and Ashbourne and a million miles from the car parks at nearby Dovedale.

This is the Peak District no one ever hears about, where windswept hilltops and high pasture are criss-crossed by medieval packhorse trails and steeply wooded dingles. I once bumped into a farmer up here, mending his fence along an isolated boundary: “You lot, you think you own the place. You come out at weekends and march all over my land!” I smiled and got ready to defend myself when he winked and told me I was the first walker he’d seen in weeks.

Some areas are now designated as open access, but most of these have always been hiker-friendly and today I planned a circuit from Onecote that would take in as much variety as possible. Old tracks contoured above the youthful River Hamps, and a farm called Under the Hill could not have been better named. The climb from Upper Elkstone led to a marked change in the landscape and a dominant blanket of thick heather. This was moorland walking at its best – or worst, depending on your point of view – with two-foot-high tussocks that until a few years ago supported England’s most southerly population of black grouse.

Someone obviously looks after the trig point on top of Revidge – it must have been one of those lucky enough to have been adopted when the OS declared them redundant. Gleaming with whitewash, it’s easy to forget many of them used to look like this not too many years ago. A pine plantation led to marshy paths that wound downhill to Hulme End, where the Manifold Valley starts to weave its way below the steep bulk of Ecton Hill.

Here there was another distinct change in scenery, with limestone grassland and slopes pitted with the remains of old copper workings. I walked due south over breezy undulating tops and descended, via a rocky little tower known as the Sugarloaf, to the bridge at Wettonmill. This is one of those popular honeypots, but everyone had gone home by now and my final three miles following the Hoo Brook up to its source at Twistgreen were spent in perfect peace. 20 million people? Not in this part of the Peak District!

Distance: 13 miles/21km Ascent: 1850ft/560m Time: around 7 hours Start/finish: Onecote village (GR: SK 049551) Map: OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL24 (The Peak District – White Peak area) Information: Leek TIC, 01538 483741 Travel: Nearest rail stations Stoke, Macclesfield and Buxton. Two local bus services offer flexible stops connecting to walk, phone 01538 386888 for details

Technical Spec
Just N of Onecote leave B5053 at Fold Farm, walk directly N on paths and tracks to Upper Elkstone. Cross lane and continue N into valley. Climb N to Herbage Barn on horizon, cross road onto open moorland. Turn E and walk to Revidge summit. N for 1/4 mile on track through pine wood, then SSE and follow paths to B5053. Turn R on road, after couple of minutes turn L on path to Hulme End. Cross road and old railway line, take path S to cross River Manifold on footbridge. Choice of paths up Ecton Hill, from summit follow signs past isolated Summerhill Farm. Walk S then SSW, past Sugarloaf, to Wettonmill. Cross bridge and lane and take path W then SW, then NW alongside Hoo Brook. At Butterton continue W for 1.5 miles to Onecote.