Click for a pdf with stage-by-stage details of the route including photos and a map, as well as links to car parks and public transport. A walking app GPX file is also available.
Length: 3.9mls | Av. time: 1h 35m | Ascent: 299ft
Start: Hassop Station | Google Map
Walk description, map & GPX | Download
A 3.9-mile circular walk from Hassop Station, now a cafe, gift shop and cycle hire centre. It follows the Trail a short way towards Buxton, then drops down a scenic, tree-lined track to the historic town of Bakewell, returning along the Monsal Trail.
Hassop Station has a large pay and display car park, and in summer the owners often open a nearby field for free parking. Bakewell makes a good alternative start, with several car parks and good bus links – see getting there.
Further down the track you may notice the air suddenly get cooler. It comes from the hidden entrance to one of Derbyshire’s last chert mines (point 6 on the pdf map).
Chert was worked into sharp-edged tools by our Stone Age ancestors, and in the 18th century it was used in the mills that ground materials for Josiah Wedgwood’s pottery.
In Bakewell the route crosses the 14th-century bridge (pictured at the top of the page), then heads back to the Trail over the ‘love lock’ bridge. It was once festooned with around 10,000 padlocks, but these were removed as a safety risk.
Above: Click the ‘Now’ button – or drag the green slider – to compare this photo of WW1 soldiers outside Bakewell Station with today’s view.
You rejoin the Trail at Bakewell Station. The line had reached Rowsley by 1849, but the Duke of Rutland refused to let it pass close to Haddon Hall – and a route through Chatsworth met a similarly frosty response from the Duke of Devonshire.
Bakewell’s councillors eventually won the Duke of Rutland round, on condition that the line ran through a tunnel past the hall. The station finally opened on 1 August 1862 – some 13 years later than planned.
The Midland Railway gave both Hassop and Bakewell stations first-class waiting rooms, hoping they’d be used by the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland and their aristocratic friends visiting Chatsworth and Haddon Hall. But it seems neither duke was impressed!
Refreshments
Bakewell is well worth exploring, with a wide choice of cafes and pubs, and bakeries selling the famous Bakewell pudding. Back at the start, Hassop Station’s cafe is always popular.
Click for a pdf with stage-by-stage details of the route including photos and a map, as well as links to car parks and public transport. A walking app GPX file is also available.
Route photos
Stages 1-6 of the route. Click any to enlarge and scroll through.
Relive video
Click to play and use the expand option to view in full-screen. More Monsal Trail Relives.