Peak District 88

The Peak District 88 takes the Dark Peak 15 Trigs concept and expands it into a full circuit of both the Dark and White Peak, visiting 88 designated summits, trigs and waypoints across the entire national park. At 142 km with around 5,000 m of ascent, it is a serious multi-day challenge — most runners take two to three days.

The route crosses every significant terrain type in the Peak District: gritstone moorland and peat hags in the Dark Peak, limestone dales and plateau in the White Peak, and the transition zones of the eastern edges and western moors. Navigation is demanding throughout — many waypoints are not on marked paths and the Dark Peak sections require compass work in poor visibility.

The 88 was developed by Peak District ultrarunners as a more comprehensive exploration of the national park than the more visited edge routes. It has no official status but a growing number of completions logged.

The route is usually divided into three roughly equal sections:

Dark Peak (north): Starting from Edale or the Snake Pass, crossing Kinder Scout, Bleaklow, Black Hill and the Saddleworth moors — visiting trigs across the high moorland plateau.

Eastern edges: The gritstone edges from Stanage to Birchen — Burbage, Froggatt, Curbar, Baslow, Gardoms. Fast, runnable terrain with good views east.

White Peak and western moors: The limestone plateau south of Bakewell, the Manifold and Dove valleys, the western moorland edges above Macclesfield and the finish back north.

Common start/finish: Edale (train station, car park) or Castleton (car park, bus). A multi-day approach suits most runners — overnight stops at Glossop, Buxton or Bakewell depending on route choice.

Best time: May to September. The Dark Peak sections are at their best in dry summer conditions.