Our Walks

Hathersage in Derbyshire is a great place for great walks, as we found out on our two day visit. Here there is a lot of very "walkable" countryside, all within a reasonable commute of Sheffield. On both days, the sun shone benignly on our exploits. The walks I describe here are the ones I had the pleasure of participating in, walks which were both ably led by John E.. Of course there were other walks, such as (Saturday, Alan) above Edale where interesting rock formations abound and (Sunday, Helen) an exploration of Hathersage's green valleys in search of the many Brontë and Jane Austen connections.

Our first full day (Saturday, 30th March) saw us doing a circular walk taking in the historic Hathersage Church, Burbage Moor, some very boggy ground bordering the Redmires Reservoirs, Stanege Pole and the Elizabethan North Lees Hall. An invigorating walk of about 14 miles. You see us having a short rest - and an in-depth appreciation of the "moorscape" - at the Upper Burbage Bridge. We rounded off the day by visting the Little John (he of Robin Hood fame) Inn in Hathersage.




On the second day (Sunday) our circular walk took in some of the picturesque Derwent Valley, Offerton, ShattonMoor and its transmitter and Brough. We returned to Hathersage via the stepping stones and the railway crossing.

This short page talks a little bit about the maps, heights and distances related to the walks in which I participated. I have also tried, in my humble way, to compare our Hathersage walks with other CLOG walks and CLOG away events; I tried this by creating an "exertion table", as I have called it. Now if you wish to dive straight into the pictorial aspects of our stay at Hathersage, then you can, of course, always come back to this page.

Maps, Heights and Distances

Both our walks - March 29 and 30 - were circular, starting and finishing at our hostel. In fact, on the second day, our walk was actually "more than circular", it was figure-of-eight.

This is a a simplified map of our circular walks, both of which conveniently started and finished at our hostel. On Saturday, 29th March, we put back about 14 miles (23 Km)
and on Sunday, 11 miles (17 Km).




On Saturday, we were often above 400 metres, on Sunday just below 400 metres.
Low points were at about 150 metres.




This is a summary of our geographical ups and downs. Our total ascent over both days was over a kilometre. (For day 29, the small errors resulting from plotting inaccuracies should not deter from the gist of the discussion!)

Our Exertions as seen with an "Exertion Table"

How do our exertions compare with those of other CLOG day and away-day walks? One can try and look at the total ascent (TA), the number (D) of days and the total ascent per day (TA/D). This can provide an initial idea of the fitness that participants needed. The higher the average ascent per day (TA/D) and the longer (in terms of days) that this total ascent per day endures, the more physically demanding the trip is. Of course, this is only an initial idea, because, apart from walk distance, other factors such as terrain (e.g. boggy terrain near Hathersage) and weather play their part, and it could already be quite challenging to quantify these latter two factors.

Here we compare a small number of recent CLOG activities, both away trips and day walks. TA is the total ascent and TA/D the total ascent per day.
Perhaps one could call this table an "exertion table"!
In the above table, just click on the walk(s) for a more detailed description of the relevant walk(s).

In the above table Ambleside occurs twice, the first entry referring to the three consecutive days with the greatest total ascent, the second entry to all five days. The above table suggests that the visit to Ambleside in the Lake District was the most demanding in terms of hiking exertions, weighing in at an average of 808 metres/day over 3 consecutive days and 661 metres/day over 5 days. In this table, Hathersage ranks "second" at 537 metres per day over 2 days. Day walks - typically near London - provide good training and exercise, but inevitably, by their nature, cannot usually measure up to the physical demands of away-day (e.g. extended weekend) activities.

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