The Great Ridge is one of those places that you should admire and walk at least once in your life! its an extremely easy location to get too by car and the walk would be suitable for all ages, with stunning 360 degree views all year round and paved paths for 90% of the walk!
The Great Ridge comprises of 4 hills, Mam Tor, Hollins Cross Hill, Back Tor and Lose Hill the highest being Mam Tor at 517 meters
If you walked from the Car Park (Mam Nick Car Park) at the foot of Mam Tor across the ridge to Lose Hill and back it is 4.5 miles with the great ridge separating the valleys of Hope Valley to the South and Edale Valley to the North.
Mam Tor is without a doubt the most visited and most recognized of the 4 hills with plenty of history from a settlement placement on top from the Bronze Age to the landslide that closed the A625 Manchester to Sheffield in 1976, it is known locally as the “shivering mountain” due to its horizontal layers of shale and gritstone, said to be “cake-like” sedimentary bands, which begin to crumble due to their unstable nature.
The area is also used by paragliders, walkers, mountain bikers, climbers and defiantly plenty of photographers and its most defiantly the most photographed location in the Peak District simply because of its ease of access, you can be on the summit of Mam Tor within 15-20 minutes from the Car Park easily.
I’ve managed to walk the Great Ridge twice so far, and visited Mam Tor on 4 different occasions I decided to write this article to share its truly beautiful scenes, its a place that is renowned for stunning weather inversions in both valleys.
Photographers flock to the ridge and Winnats Pass from all over the world to capture the wonderful scenes of mist the valleys below, The best time of the year to capture inversions is around October and November and April and May when cold air is stuck in the valleys.
Its a place that I want to visit more, but defiantly don’t want to visit to much as people tend to line up at the gates when its busy to take a photo.
The Hope Valley early morning sunrise with some light mist lying in the valley
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Mam Tor behind me, looking along the Great Ridge, Hollins Cross Hill, Back Tor and Lose Hill in the distance. I Love the pastel colours and the vibrant sky.
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The sun casting some side light onto Hollins Hill and Back Tor, on the Great Ridge in the Peak District.
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