Kinder Scout (north)

Kinder Scout: an enigmatic name for a marvellous place. Actually, the term refers strictly only to the high plateau of peat moorland crowning the hilly massif properly called just ‘Kinder’. Indeed, it was once only the name for the waterfall that, drought permitting, tumbles over the Western escarpment. Kinder Scout, like Bleaklow, can be harsh and inhospitable.

Pictured here is Kinder’s northern edge. Hereabouts are many beautiful, fast-flowing streams (like Blackden Brook) which splash down off the hill through steep rocky valleys of little waterfalls and many deep pools. Eventually they flow into the River Ashop, which runs out of sight below the hillside, from right to left.

Kinder Scout sheds water in dramatic fashion over its western edge, at Kinder Downfall. On this day there wasn't so very much water coming over and consequently the height of the fall wasn't enormous either.

At this particular place the valley funnels the West Wind and ultimately concentrates all its power on the waterfall. The water tends to be blown back up and over the fall again, sometimes in spectacular fashion!

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Standing up above the valley of Blackden Brook, we gaze up and across the Ashop valley towards Higher Shelf Stones in the far distance.

Fro From Kinder's Northern slopes, looking North into the mouth of the Alport Valley.

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A winter's day in the Ashop Valley, through which the A57 Snake Pass wends its way between Sheffield and Manchester. We are somewhere east of Alport Bridge, looking up the valley.

Spring Bluebells in the Ashop valley.

Above and below: A sprinkling of powdery snow dusts the valleys of the Ashop and the Alport.