Get Lost Mountaineering

Gardom's Edge from Robin Hood Inn.

Start/Finish

Birchen Edge (Pay & Display) car park which is adjacent to the Robin Hood Inn, a prominent landmark, on the A619 road about 2 km from the roundabout at the eastern end of Baslow village. The Inn has a large car park but only for its own customers. The Birchen Edge car is adjacent to the Inn car park but a little further from the main road. The rough car park which is opposite the Inn car park was closed at the time of this route in November 2018

Distance/Time

3 km    About 2 hours or longer

Peaks

There are no real summits on this walk as it is mainly an edge walk below then above Gardom's Edge.

OS Outdoor Leisure 24: White Peak

Introduction

This is a short walk in the White Peak although the rock is more in keeping with the Dark Peak! Unfortunately, Gardom's Edge is just below the top of a heavily wooded slope. One can easily traverse across the lower slopes but you are unlikely to see much of the edge through the trees. To get higher, in order to see the crags, one has to negotiate or avoid large, often mossy, rocks and awkward tree branches which makes for very slow going at times as it may be necessary to keep going down and up the slope to make forward progress. Given the tree issues, it is best to walk this route in winter when the leaves have dropped and the views are more open but still restricted to some extent.

Route

(1) Walk back down the main road towards Baslow passing the Robin Hood Inn. Soon after the entrance to the camp site, look for a not very obvious sign for the start of the path to Gardom's Edge. Once clear of the road, the view starts to open up and one can see Birchen Edge quite clearly well off to the right. Moorside Farm is also just off to the right. Once past the farm, the large outcrop known to some as the Three Men (others consider it to be three cairns above the start of the edge) becomes very obvious and is worth a short detour before returning to the main path. After passing through the wall, stay on the path but look for a minor path forking off right (not very obvious). This traverses the lower slopes below Gardoms Edge so drift right to find the start of the edge and pick a way forward below the cliff. At times, you may have to descend some way then reascend because of awkward fallen rocks so progress will be slow. The edge is only about 1 km long and finishes about where there are two towers about 50 m apart with the first one having a sizeable overhang. It is possible to pick a way up, faint path, to the top of the edge between these towers or one can go further then gain the top of the edge.

(2) Once on the top of the edge, the going is much easier and one can follow a path and wall. Stay with the wall, passing the three cairns referred to above before rejoining the outward route back to the road near to the Robin Hood.

Notes

(a) This walk took place on 17^th November, 2018.