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: 5.7mls | Av. time: 2h 40m | Ascent: 827ft
Start: Miller’s dale Station | Google Map
Walk description, map & GPX | Download
A 5.7-mile circular walk from Miller’s Dale Station across the White Peak to Five Wells Tomb, said to be Britain’s highest megalithic tomb, at around 1,400 feet.
It passes through Priestcliffe to join the Limestone Way, then crosses the A6 and climbs a gentle slope to one of the most evocative spots in the Peak District.
The walk starts from the large pay and display car park at Miller’s Dale Station, which has a cafe and toilets. The nearest alternative is on-road parking in Taddington. A regular Buxton–Tideswell bus stops close to the Anglers Rest pub (click for timetable) – see also getting there.
The station is now a quiet and remote spot, but was once one of the busiest on the Midland Railway’s line between Manchester and Derby. It’s hard to picture the contrast with a century ago, when some of the most powerful engines ever built steamed noisily into its five platforms.
It needs an even greater leap of imagination to picture the landscape in the late Neolithic period, some 5,000 years ago, when our ancient ancestors started building stone circles and burying their honoured dead in chambered cairns under large mounds of earth.
Above: My smartphone revealed that the burial chambers are aligned exactly east to west.
Built between about 3400 and 2400 BC, Five Wells takes its name from the five wells around the nearby village of Taddington. The tomb (point 14 on the pdf map) was first excavated in 1846 by local antiquarian Thomas Bateman, who found bones from 12 men and women, along with a flint arrowhead.
Later digs unearthed more bones – both human and animal, from as many as 17 people in all – as well as pottery and flint tools.
Tunnel entrances
There are two back-to-back chambers, one facing east and the other west, separated by large upright stones. These would have been covered by an earth mound some 56 feet across, with tunnel entrances at both ends. With such wonderful panoramic views, it’s easy to see why our ancestors chose this spot.
From the tomb, the route drops down to the hamlet of Blackwell, passing a campsite with a cafe (opening times can vary), then follows farm tracks and open fields back to the Monsal Trail and Miller’s Dale.
The station cafe offers snacks, drinks and ice cream, and the nearby Anglers Rest pub has a good menu, a wide range of drinks and benches beside the river.
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.