Shelf Moor RFM Blue Line Walking with the kids

 

Shelf Moor RFM 

Blue Line 

Walking with the kids

05/08/25

The background to this walk is a little interesting. I thought it would be good to take the kids on a tough walk, one Lacey and I have been talking about for ages, to the crash site of the B29 Superfortress from the second world war. The easy route is to go from the Snake Pass Summit parking but where is the fun in that. So I decided to start in Glossop at the point Peter and I parked at a couple of weeks ago. I do have another walk for Peter that starts at the same point and goes up Doctor's Gate but that is for the future. 

So far so good, Max and Lacey would be up for this difficult but do-able walk. To my surprise it turned out Lola wanted to join us. Bear in mind this is a tough walk in good conditions and would be her first high level walk. I am not sure she knew what she was letting herself in for. These adventures test your own reserves of strength, resilience, fortitude and bravery. There is no turning back once we start so the walk must be completed. The group encouragement always helps. This walk was made much harder by rain squalls, low cloud, bogs and extreme winds. Would Lola make it. You bet she did and she made her grandad the proudest man on earth. Max and Lacey were full contributors to her first wild hill adventure and they also had to conquer this most difficult of hikes.

     

We started from the top of the housing estate in Old Glossop just below Shire Hill. The road is the main road from Manchester to Sheffield over the Snake Pass but mercifully it is not busy. The Royal Oak preceded the National Park border marker as we went up the narrow footpath.

Happily there is a lovely woodland path alternative to the roadside. Plenty of tree roots and various funguses kept our eyes downwards. There were also plenty of birdsong. It was a good start to the walk.

Leaving the wood a short stretch up the road and we veered off towards Mossy Lea Farm. The hills to our left were the hills Peter and I had gone up and down to Bleaklow on our last walk. 

In front of us the hills looked formidable but we didn't realise these were not the tops but only part of the way up.

We paused on the bridge near the farm, as ever it seems to be an unwritten rambling rule, you must pause on every bridge and watch the water for a while. Max and Lola add to this by throwing at least 1 stone into each stream.

There seemed to be a lot of lumps and bumps in the landscape leading to the hills, I assumed this was either quarrying or mining but to be fair I don't really know. It didn't matter anyway because those were the inaccessible hills of Yellowslacks and not Shelf Moor. Our way was more to the right.

We approached the split in the route left up to Shelf Moor and right the old Roman Road more on that later.

The hills we were to climb were in front of us, but these were not the summit which was further and higher than we could see. Lola was suffering a little but looking back on how high we had climbed so far revived her spirits. 

The horizon can be daunting on any walk when you know you have to get to it.

We encouraged her with the old adages 'just put one foot in front of the other','Look down not up' etc. She was fully aware that there was no turning back, harsh, but best to establish early.

I set the pace and the intrepid 3 followed manfully as the weather started to look a little more threatening. The way ahead was also beginning to cloud over. We me a couple of guys descending the trail. They were doing our walk but in reverse starting and finishing at the Snake Pass Summit Parking. We promised to see them again as we were descending and they were climbing.

   

The weather ahead was getting even worse, even I had to put on my coat and cover my back pack. Luckily the kids had waterproof backpacks. The rain was coming down in sheets behind the kids who were unaware of it until I showed them. Strangely the bad weather didn't dampen the mood but rather increased the excitement.

We were getting higher by the step and the hills to our right were shrouded by visible sheets of rain.

Up here the pond was a pleasant sight with Glossop in the distance. There was a large group of ramblers following us getting closer and closer with each stop.

The weather was now starting to give us some atmospheric views as the base of the clouds hovered around us. Lacey helped Lola up another steep slope. Well done you two.

More spectacular cloud views and finally a view of the top of our walk on the right. Lola seemed to get a second wind and was covering the ground well. I think the group following gave her some impetus. No one likes to get caught on a walk.

These are the days you have to commit the sights to memory as the weather again gave us unusual views like sunny slopes below low clouds.

The distant rocks were our final destination as we approached the summit trig point of Shelf Moor. Crossing the peat bog Lola experienced the springy ground and was happy and laughing. Warmed the cockles.

Looking back the landscape in the far distance was sun drenched below the gloomy clouds we were experiencing.

We picked our way over the sodden ground towards the summit.

Looking back the following group had fallen back as we surged ahead.

The last push to the top for the 3 happy kids. 

At last the top.

The three panorama shots from the trig point capture the atmosphere of this wonderful place and explain why one of these views is towards the moor called Bleaklow.

The rocks were heavily carved by weather and humans. Some of the dates were C19th and many second world war which gave the rocks the feeling of being a memorial. The weather was too windy and wet to sit and eat so we all voted to carry on before we had our food. I think Lola would have braved it and she deserved it but it was just too wild.

The last view of the following group so we know not which path they took but I don't think they followed us down the hill.

The remains of the aircraft are scattered over a large area. I would imagine quite a bit more is buried in the moor. It was really interesting and sad to remember the 13 young men who died in the crash. The kids almost intuitively were quite respectful of what they saw, good kids. 

The way down started with a traverse around a boggy hill with the wind crashing into us and hail and rain wetting us thoroughly. It was miserable but we had to endure. At least it wasn't uphill. Then the slope down to the stream at Crooked Clough gave us another obstacle avoiding the slippy mud and deep ruts of the wide path.

The weather started to lift but the wind got even worse. At the stream Max found a safe route to cross uphill a way and we followed him gratefully.

This was a lovely upland valley but pretty inaccessible. Our route kept high up along the contour near the edge of the horseshoe shaped valley. This was the famous Doctor's Gate Roman road but to be honest it was just a rocky path high up the side of a hill.

The wind was full on and hitting us in the right side of the face. It was really hard to stand up but we all kept going as to be honest we had no option. The views were great but the wind vicious.

The hills were the ones we had just crossed and the clouds had lifted but they still looked grim.

A series of waterfalls in the valley below us was a lovely sight. The sheets of rain heading towards us less welcome.

After a while we started to get the benefit of descending the hill. We passed the 2 guys we had seen early and had a chat. They agreed with us the grim weather was so good to experience.

We finally found a place to stop as the weather moderated right next to the narrow path and about 30 precarious vertical feet above the valley. Typically as soon as we got our food out a young couple came round the corner but they easily skipped passed us and exchanged greetings. Halfway through our sandwiches another shower hit us but we just carried on eating.

We started to descend more quickly into a softer world.

These hills we had conquered and we were pleased with the achievement. I think Lola was a little overawed with what she had done, though her heavy tired legs were her primary concern. At this point Lacey gave her the support she needed as me and Max surged down the path.





This high valley was very pretty as we followed the Doctors Gate down the hill. The purple heather always a spectacular sight at this time of year. The route was paved and bridged so it was easy to follow.

We reached the point where earlier in the walk we had gone left and retraced our steps past the farm and onto the road and back to the car.

This had been a spectacular walk with the weather adding atmosphere and difficulty. Max and I agreed it was at least 25% harder due to the wind than it would have been when calm. We all did really well but obviously Lola for her first high level walk was the stand out achiever. Well done and you are now an official member of Grandads Ramblers Group.

The speed of this walk was impressive considering the weather and terrain.