Monsal Head to Ashford Walk via Fin Cop Hillfort (5 miles)

The path down from the Monsal Trail to Ashford on a beautiful mid-May morning.

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: 4.9mls | Av. time: 2h 15m | Ascent: 787ft
Start: Monsal Head | Google Map
Walk description, map & GPX | Download

A 4.9-mile circular walk from the viewpoint at Monsal Head, down to the Trail and across field paths to the picturesque village of Ashford-in-the-Water. It returns along Pennyunk Lane, with the option of a detour to the Iron Age settlement at Fin Cop.

There’s plenty of pay and display parking at Monsal Head, and often free spaces along the lane to Little Longstone. Ashford has a small car park with an honesty box, as well as on-street parking. Both are on bus routes – see getting there.

The route joins the Trail beside Headstone Viaduct. Headstone Tunnel, to the left, is the longest of six tunnels on the Trail – they only reopened in 2011, some 30 years after the Trail itself.

In Ashford you pass a covered well – one of six in the village dressed with petals, berries and leaves around Trinity Sunday – and the much-photographed Sheepwash Bridge.

From Ashford the route climbs the wonderfully named Pennyunk Lane – a lovely path in spring and summer, though the last section can get muddy in winter. To skip Ashford, you can join it from point 9 on the pdf map.

Fin Cop

The detour to Fin Cop (points 17 to 20) follows a narrow path beside a stone wall, with wonderful views across Monsal Dale. Without it, the walk is around four miles.

Above: The remains of Fin Cop lie behind this wall. You could once cross into the field to explore them, but the farmer has since blocked off access.

Not that there’s much to see – just a few bumps and hollows that once formed the defensive ramparts. The views more than make up for it, and show why the site was chosen, with a panoramic view of any approaching threat.

Facial reconstruction of a young boy from Fin Cop

Above: A facial reconstruction of a young boy, based on a skull found during the excavation of Fin Cop.

Excavations in 2009 and 2010 revealed a much darker story. The hillfort was built around 440–390 BC, but its rock-cut ditch seems never to have been finished.

In a short stretch of the ditch, archaeologists found the skeletons of nine people – all women and children, including four babies and a teenager – buried among stones from the toppled wall.

They believe the fort was attacked and destroyed soon after it was built, centuries before the Romans arrived. There’s more in Current Archaeology’s report on the excavation.

Refreshments

There’s a pub and tearoom at Monsal Head, and the Packhorse Inn in nearby Little Longstone is always worth a visit. In Ashford there’s the Ashford Arms, the Bulls Head pub and the Aisseford Tearoom.

Map, description & GPX

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.