Burbage, Stanage Edge and Higger Tor from Grindleford
You can get here by train and step off the platform onto the route. Four of the best gritstone edges in the country in one loop, with Higger Tor and Carl Wark saved for 19km in when your legs are already talking.
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Mostly on runnable ground, but most runners still walk the steepest climbs.
A 24km loop with 760m of climb, straight from Grindleford station, up through Padley Gorge to Longshaw and Houndkirk Moor, along the gritstone top of Stanage Edge and back over Higger Tor and Carl Wark.
You can get here by train and step off the platform onto the route. Four of the best gritstone edges in the country in one loop, with Higger Tor and Carl Wark saved for 19km in when your legs are already talking.
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.
The Stanage top path runs along the lip of a 25m escarpment for around 2km, and the polished gritstone is treacherous in wet or icy conditions. Ring ouzels nest on and below Stanage and Burbage from March to July, with signed diversions at active nest sites. Adders are active on the Eastern Moors from February to November. The route crosses the fast A6187 near Burbage Bridge.
Safety on this route
- No signal? Text 999 — pre-register first: text register to 999
- Tell someone your route and expected return time before you head out
Leave No Trace
- Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories.
- Please respect the countryside and all its inhabitants.
- Dogs on leads near livestock, and around ground-nesting birds from March to July.
- Gates as you find them — open or closed, leave it that way for the farmer and the next runner.
- Take it all home — wrappers, peel, tissue, the lot. It doesn't count as biodegradable if you can still see it.
- Stick to the path where the ground either side is wet, planted, or nesting habitat.
Common questions
GPX checked
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