Burbage, Stanage Edge and Higger Tor from Grindleford

The route

From Grindleford station the route climbs through Padley Gorge, a steep oak and birch woodland beside Burbage Brook with rooty, rocky singletrack that is greasy in the wet. You come out onto the Longshaw Estate and pass the Fox House and Toad's Mouth at around 3km, then pick up Houndkirk Road, a rough old turnpike across open moor. It is wide, loose, cobbled and fully exposed, and mountain bikes come down it fast.

The edges

At 6km you reach the top of Burbage Rocks, then cross Upper Burbage Bridge and get onto Stanage Edge itself. The trig pillar at 457m comes at 8km and the next 2km are the technical heart of the route: bare gritstone slab, block steps and drainage channels along the lip of a 25m escarpment, with Robin Hood's Cave tucked under the edge at 9km. Expect climbers topping out, particularly at weekends, so run wide of the edge. The route turns back short of High Neb and drops to Dennis Knoll, then runs the Hathersage side past North Lees before climbing back east over Callow Bank.

The sting in the tail

Higger Tor at 19.5km is the point of this route. A short sharp pull onto a broad rocky plateau at 434m, then down to Carl Wark, the Iron Age hillfort on its boulder shelf below. From there the line runs south over Winyard's Nick and Over Owler Tor to Surprise View before dropping back into Padley Gorge for the finish.

Getting there

Grindleford station is on the Hope Valley line between Sheffield and Manchester, and the route starts at the platform, which makes this one of the few big Peak District loops you never need a car for. The station cafe at the finish has been serving chip butties and pints of tea for over forty years.