Stanage Edge and Paper Mill Pool Walk
This is a 2 hour walk. If coming from Sheffield come out on Ringinglow Road heading towards Hathersage, and at Fiddler’s Elbow turn to the right (just after Upper Burbage Bridge) heading towards Stanage. After Overstones Farm the road starts heading down towards Hathersage, at this point there a road off to the right, take this road (there is a car park on the junction and this is another point to go up onto Stanage Edge). Follow the road for about half a mile where the road forks – take the right fork. As you follow the road round you will see a toilet block on your left (this is where the path comes out at the end of the walk) carry on past for about 500 yds and the carpark is on your right hand side. This is paying car park. You can find this walk on Ordnance Survey Map Explorer OL1. (Google Maps)
The Walk
In the top left right hand corner of the carpark is the path heading up onto Stanage Edge, half way up you will go through a gate and after the gate the path heads up round to the left and under the Edge (quite often this is where you will see climbers on the rock) and on your left is a small wood. The path zigzags up onto the Edge but there are number of straight up paths if you are more energetic. Once up on the Edge you can head along the edge to the right which will eventually take you to the first carpark you past on the road coming. This will mean a walk down the road back to the car. But this walk goes off the left along the edge. As in the film ‘Pride & Prejudice” you will see lots of lovely windswept views over towards Hathersage and beyond.
After a while the edge path meets and joins the Old Road, we are going to walk along the Old Road following it down from the Edge. Once the path starts to level out there is the option to shorten the walk by taking the path off to the left (a lone tree in the middle of the bracken marks this as the path to take). You can carry on the Old Road and follow it on round to the left to the upper carpark, this would mean a short walk down the true road to meet the path. Other wise take the path off to the left at the tree and follow it through the bracken to the road. At the road turn right and at the corner of the forest (marked Dennis Knoll on the map) you will see a path off to the left going along the edge of the forest. Take this path, when you get to the other end of the forest which will be on your right, take the path heading down through the fields towards the farm (Green House on the map). At the farm take the footpath to the left this heads down into the valley through some trees, at the bottom is Paper Mill Pool in the trees on the left. This is a good point to stop to take photos, have refreshments etc , there are remains of the mill as well.