Summary
Distance – 16 miles 23 km
Estimated Time – 3 – 4 hrs
Introduction
You can expect to find some of the finest scenery in The Peak District on this course and provides a pleasant and fairly energetic ride. It follows a mixture of major and minor roads, forest roads and rough tracks, so it is best done on a mountain bike. The distance involved is approximately 16 miles (24 km) but there is plenty of up and down, as you’ll find with all our courses and most in The Peak District.
Instructions
Leave Buxton on the A5002 road signposted to Whaley Bridge, which passes alongside the Royal Devonshire Hospital. This road is a steady climb up towards the ridge above Buxton, so it is quite hard work.
You will leave the town behind and pass Cold Springs Farm (with a small camp site) on your left. At the next bend in the road a track goes off to the right, initially metalled but soon degenerating into rough going. Take this track – it is the old Roman road into Buxton.
The track climbs steeply to the crest of the ridge, from where you can look back at the town behind and the Goyt Valley to your left. Descend the other side and pass around the back of White Hall Outdoor Centre, where the track becomes metalled again.
Carry on along this minor road, ignoring the turning on the right which goes down to Combs. The road offers an excellent view of Kinder Scout to the north and then crosses the next ridge via an obvious notch. From here it descends steadily towards Whaley Bridge. When you arrive at some houses which mark the outskirts of the town another road (Shallcross Lane) doubles back on the left. Follow this back down to the A5002. (A few hundred metres down the from the junction with the main road there is a pleasant pub, the Shady Oak, which might be a good place for refreshment.)
Continue and ride about one hundred and fifty metres back up the main road towards Buxton before turning right down a Water Board road signposted ‘Goyt Water Treatment Works’ and which leads to Fernilee Reservoir. Cross Fernilee dam, then follow this narrow road turning left and then right before climbing uphill to a farm called Oldfield.
From here a track heads southwards around the hillside and into the forest. Follow this through the forest to emerge on the minor road which crosses the Goyt Valley via Errwood dam. Turn left and descend to the banks of Errwood Reservoir.
Follow the road initially alongside the reservoir and later following the River Goyt upstream. Close to the top of the road you cross the river at Derbyshire Bridge and soon come to a T-junction, where there are toilets and a picnic area.
Turn left and take the rough track which heads back over the hill to Buxton. This is the original coach road between Buxton and Macclesfield and it is rather steep and fairly rough going, especially on the Buxton side of the summit.
Yo will then descend towards Buxton and enter Burbage, on the outskirts of the town, and the road becomes metalled once again. Continue past the traffic lights at Burbage Church and turn left onto St John’s Road, which leads you back to the centre of Buxton.