Above: The stepping stones in Chee Dale, which can look a bit daunting when the water level is high.
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: 3.3mls | Av. time: 1h 25m | Ascent: 115ft
Start: Wyedale car park | Google Map
Walk description, map & GPX | Download
A 3.3-mile circular walk from Wyedale car park, beside the A6 about three miles east of Buxton. It follows a picturesque, tree-lined lane beside the River Wye to Blackwell Mill, at the start of the Monsal Trail, then carries on into Chee Dale.
Wyedale car park soon fills up at weekends and on sunny days. A free alternative is the layby at Topley Pike on the A6 (shown as Chee Dale layby on Google Maps), where a path leads down to the Trail. There’s more on parking and public transport on the getting there page.
Blackwell Mill takes its name from a corn mill that once stood beside the river here, in the old township of Blackwell – from the Old English for ‘dark spring or stream’. The cottages across the river were built for workers on the Midland Railway.
A short distance from the start of the Trail are the remains of Blackwell Mill Halt, a tiny stop built for railway workers and their families. What little survives is on railway land and isn’t open to the public.
Above: A steam train passing Blackwell Mill Halt around 1950, with the platform’s stone shelter on the right. Photo courtesy of Middleton Press: Ambergate to Buxton.
From Blackwell Mill it’s very much a walk of two halves. The first continues beside the river on a narrow path that can get muddy in winter and after rain. The return is along the easy-going surface of the Monsal Trail, through Chee Tor No.2 Tunnel.
Chee Dale stepping stones
The walk crosses one of the two sets of stepping stones in Chee Dale, at point 6 on the pdf map. They can look a bit daunting when the river is running high and fast – which it often is after rain and in winter.
But the stones are evenly spaced with flat tops, and the rock face is within easy reach for a steadying hand.
Even so, I’d not recommend taking very young children this way in the winter months. If the riverside path looks too boggy, the track on the left where the path divides (point 4) climbs up to the Monsal Trail, which makes a useful escape route.
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.