The 16 Most Beautiful Natural Features in the UK

Stanage Edge

Stanage Edge, in the Peak District National Park on the eastern edge of Derbyshire, is the longest gritstone edge in the UK. In plain English, for non-rock climbers, it is a 3.5-mile long, continuous run of fine-grained stone cliffs and bluffs overlooking the Hope Valley. The exposed rock faces — popular with climbers — are between 50 and 65 feet high. The whole is a lot more impressive than that might suggest because the edge runs at the top of a hill, between 1,300 and 1,500 feet above the valley floor.

How to See It

You'll probably need a SatNav or GPS device because, although it is not difficult to get to, Stanage Edge is off several paved but unnumbered or signposed park roads. It's about six miles southeast of the Yorkshire Bridge Inn in Bamford. Go south from the inn on the A6013 and then turn left onto New Road (it's the first left) . After about two miles, keep left at the T-junction with Long Causeway. At the Long Causeway carpark, turn right onto the unmarked road. After about a half a mile, you will see the beginning of Stanage Edge, uphill, on your left.

 

There are several parking areas but for the most choice, stay on this unnamed road, bearing left at the next T-junction, until you reach Hook's Car Park (about a mile and a half from the Long Causeway carpark at the junction with The Dale). From this point your can either:

 

enjoy a long view of the edge, above you

take the stone-paved path up across the moor to the path along the bottom of Stanage Edge

 

or cross through the low rocks to walk along the top of the edge and pose moodily like someone in a whisky ad.