Whilst the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway was built as a joint venture with the L&NWR, completed in 1863, it was always the baby of the Midland Railway, forming their mainline to Manchester. If the line had remained open, carved through Wye Dale and the Derwent valley, it could have been a scenic line to rival the Settle & Carlisle (also a baby of the Midland Railway), but it met it's end in 1968 after the Labour government gave up on it, proving that idiotic decisions were still being made in the post-Beeching years. The Monsal trail, occupying stretches of the line was opened as a multi-use path by the Peak District National Park Authority in 1981, with Derbyshire County Council protecting the line from encroaching development, but the original trail took detours around four tunnels which were only reopened to use in 2011, thanks in part to Julia Bradbury walking them for her TV programme, and making the new alignment possibly the best railway walk in the whole country.
The Monsal Trail: Wyedale Head to Bakewell. 10.6 miles
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| Blackwell Mill Cutting |
Take the ride up to Wyedale Head with My Sis and Dr G, who drop me off at the carpark just off the A6 at 10am, so they can travel down to Bakewell to cycle the trail from bottom to top and back again, whilst I do the walk only downhill, in the metaphorical and literal senses. The actual trail is about half a mile from the carpark, at Topley Pike junction, and to get there you follow the path alongside the River Wye and under the three viaducts still extent on the sections of the railway that are still in situ to serve the quarries that operate just outside the national park. Ascend the embankment at Blackwell Mill and find only three other people at the top of the trail, and allow myself to think that it might not be as busy as I was anticipating, so set off immediately into a deep cleft through the limestone and when the valley opens out a bit, it provides rough limestone crags high above us and views towards the branch of the railway which once went to Manchester.This section of the Wye valley is known as Chee Dale, and it would be close to providing that riot of Autumnal colour if it wasn't so pudding-grey in the sky, actually the whole of the valley puts me in mind of Calderdale, as the valley sides rise at a regular sort of angle to a regular sort of elevation, only here we're further up the sides and the whole thing is a lot narrower. The first viaduct we meet does not have a name, so I'll call it Blackwell Mill viaduct, and that leads us to the northern side of the river and to our first tunnel, Rusher Cutting tunnel, which at 111m long looks as if it should have been blasted out to form a cutting, but something in the terrain defeated its engineers, leaving us with a graceful brick-lined and horseshoe shaped structure to enjoy.
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| Chee Tor no.2 & no.1 Tunnels |
Shortly comes our next tunnel, Chee Tor no.2, and there's all of 93m of that with its stone sloped-in sides and brick-lined arch, before we cross over the Wye and straight into Chee Tor no.1 tunnel, and out of Chee Dale. This is our first long tunnel at 367m, and with sufficient curve to not be able to see the other end when you enter, and when I exit into Millers Dale, I get my first taste of the diversity of people that can be found out on the line, first an old guy on crutches, striding purposefully north and then a huge group of kids out cycling, which must have been a school cycling group, if such a thing exists? Millersdale bridge, over the Wye again, is of sufficient height to abseil off, and this seems to be big enough business for half the bridge to be dedicated to this pursuit of adrenaline. Next up, is a bit of industrial heritage, a sizable limekiln which could easily be interpreted as the lair of a James Bond villain if the information boards didn't explain otherwise, it really looks like it could have been dropped from space. Not really enough time to stumble around in the dark in there though, the path needs to be followed into Millers Dale station, a much larger station than you could ever honestly need for such an out of the way location, but back in the day this was a junction station and tourist central for the walking classes of another era, the past really was a different place and they did things differently there!
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| Millers Dale Viaducts |
At the bottom of the station are the Millers Dale Viaducts, a pair of iron trusses, one arched and the other boxed, and the old of the pair carries the trail over the river (again) and from the looks of it is in better condition than its newer and off-limits counterpart. Impressive structures both, but I think probably better viewed from below, so I start to mentally plan out walking the Wye valley on the paths below the Monsal Trail for future reference. More lime kiln action beyond there, but these look altogether more sensible and therefore unremarkable, so carry on through trees and cuttings to get occasional views up to the high moors and vertiginously down into the valley to the limestone scars, and note that someone on the National Park Authority thinks like I do as sections of trees have been intentionally cleared to offer views into the valley, so hurrah for picturesque thinking! Dodge the gangs of cyclists and pause at a noticeboard for the benefit of the geologically inclined as it illustrates the base of an ancient lava flow which erupted into the landscape millions of years ago, and it makes a bit of a change in this limestone country. Press onwards, and take the view down to Litton Mill, the scene of some horrifying child labour practises in the late 18th century and then it's onwards into Litton Tunnel, 471m long and curved enough to not be able to see either end from the middle.
From there you emerge into probably the best view that I have gotten all year, even better than Colden Clough, as the line perches high above the southern edge of the valley at the middle of the broad curve where the river loops in a broad M shape. It's a spectacular view, one that could be only glimpsed from the train in the few hundred metres between the tunnels, and inaccessible until the reopening of the whole line last year. It's a great spot to enjoy the modest grandeur of nature, high above the River Wye, feeling quite remote from the rest of the world for a few minutes, and it's damned hard to photograph, but hopefully a bit of autostitching will render my pics into something usefully representative. I'll let you be the judge of that.
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| Millers Dale: the Best View of 2012 |
Press on into Cressbrook Tunnel, a curving 431m and showing an odd five-sided profile for much of its length, but I don't have a steady enough hand to photograph it well (forgetting that my stick doubles up as a monopod), and at the end of it I might the largest group of walkers that I've ever encountered. There must be about 40 of them and they're certainly not your average group, all dressed for the city rather than the great outdoors, and looking like a young-adult community college group as they're all too old to be described as kids, they have also created quite the most huge fog of cigarette smoke outside the tunnel as they must have all lit-up before they ventured inside.
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| Cressbrook Mill |
They pass on north and I pause to enjoy my first view into Monsal Dale, a bit wider than its predecessors with a broad plain at the bottom, and also Cressbrook Mill, a much prettier arrangement of buildings than Litton Mill, and without the awful associations either. There are many more cyclists to dodge, and I'd never have thought that it would be this busy midweek, Autumn Half-term week or not, and soon enough some familiar faces appear coming the other way, My Sis and family cycling uphill. The adults are towing the girls on their small bikes, and whilst elder niece is secure enough to ride on both wheels, younger niece has only her back wheel on the ground so appears to be popping a wheelie the whole time. We pause to water and compare progress, and agree that out 2pm target finish looks well within possibility before they set off again to burn their calves up to the top and I head on to pause at the remains of Monsal Dale Halt to stuff a sandwich in my face as our late lunch appointment in Bakewell still feels like a long way off.Then onward to the location that is the most well-known image of the trail, as Headstone Viaduct crosses Monsal Dale, but it's a view that you can only get if you wander far off the path up onto the valley's top edge and I don't have time for that, not even time to get a decent pic of the viaduct from off the track and it's not easy to even get an angle on it from the trail.
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| Headstone Tunnel |
Push on into Headstone Tunnel, the longest (487m) and last (6th) for the day, and it takes us out of the valley of the Wye and off to more rolling farmlands, and I'm already missing the subterranean chill and fact that I've done 1.2 miles of my day's walking underground as I emerge into Headstone Cutting. It looks like they could have done to have cut the tunnel longer, as the sheer sides are extensively reinforced and there's a substantial rock shelter at the tunnel mouth to prevent injury to passing travellers. Farmland looks somewhat bland after the dramatic landscapes of the upper trail, but it does look like the sun is at least trying to break through as I start taking greater note of the bridges I pass under and note the attractiveness of the combination of Great Longstone station and Thornbridge Hall as they pass by. Start to feel like I should be getting a move on, so pick up the pace and check the map with each road crossed to see how much further it is to Bakewell, and hurry on to meet the over-sized Hassop station, which is nowhere near its village and apparently exists because the Duke of Devonshire, resident at Chatsworth House, didn't want to have to share Bakewell station with the Duke of Rutland, resident at Haddon Hall. Nobs, eh?
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| Coomb Road Viaduct |
Press on now, and feel some relief as the first houses of Bakewell appear, and on the run into the town an industrial estate appears encroached unattractively from the old goods yard onto the line, and Bakewell station itself seems disappointing for some reason, It's a nice enough assemblage of buildings, but there are no tourist features of note and the infilling between the platforms is frankly ugly. The trail ends a further mile down the line though, and as our arrival time is still a half hour distant, I carry on to get it down, watching Bakewell start to recede behind me and feel that with two overbridges and no decent views, this is the section of the trail for completists only. Soon enough the trail reaches its abrupt end at Coomb Road Viaduct, and I descend to the road, hopeful that the trail might one day extend on through Haddon Tunnel and on to meet the railway at Rowsley (or that Peak Rail might one day get up here), and conclude this excellent railway walk. Problem is, there's a mile to get back to Bakewell and I have phone my Parents to expect us a little after our planned arrival time. Along Coomb Road, My Sis and family pass on their homeward leg and we all agree that our timekeeping has been pretty good, and then it's just a matter of finding Parents by the bridge by the carpark, but it turns out there are more carparks by bridges than I had thought. So they're not by the old bridge, they're at the newer one watching the waterfowl above and fish below the weir, and our parties all gather at 2.15pm, and I wonder if there will be Fish & Chips or a Roast Beef Sandwich in my immediate future. Yes, if Steak Tartine at Le Mistral counts!
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 426.7 miles
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