Black Chew Head 542m and Black Hill 582m, Crowden, Peak District (County HP/Marilyn).
Summary
After a rest day yesterday it was back to the grindstone today with a double county top not far from Glossop. The small cairn of Black Chew Head is the County /Unitary top of Greater Manchester and the trig pointed top of Black Hill is the same for the historic county of Cheshire. The latter being a Marilyn as well. Picked up another TP at Hey Edge on the way round as well.
Parking was at a rather large and well known car park in Crowden at the start point next to the campsite. It is a free car park and there are toilets at the campsite though there are signs for patrons only. It does get busy too. Parked there with only two cars at 8am on my return it was full.
Walk to the toilets anyway and follow the road up to the right (North) and veer left at the junction up a narrow footpath that comes to a locked gate next to a small dam. I jumped over the gate and went over the dam head and headed uphill West on decent paths to join the Pennine Way footpath. I then followed the PW along a scenic uphill slog until I came out on the clifftop at Laddow Rocks.
From here I continued North for a few hundred meters until I was level with Black Chew Head and then just headed West a few hundred meters until I hit a fence. Here was a style and just over it was the small cairned summit of BCH. I retuned to the PW continued North going down gently and then rising in the same manner to reach the trig pointed summit of Black Hill, about a three kilometre leg. The path is slabbed all the way. All easy to here and the views are quite lovely, bleak but scenic.
From Black Hill you head South on an indistinct path over boggy ground all the way to White Low and onwards to the trig point on Hey Edge (Not marked on the OS map). This is about four kilometres of undulating walking but again very rugged and scenic.
From Hey Edge you drop down on a good path that takes you down to the quarry marked on the map. There is a distinct path that takes you around North of the quarry then into it and out of the other side where you join a wide track. Simply follow this wide track East, South and then West until you hit a fence. There is a style and you then follow a footpath South through a gate where you rejoin your up route. You can see the campsite now and in a few more minutes you are back at your start point.
Parking: Large free car park with a nearby toilet. Gets busy. No height restrictions.
Route: A lovely rugged walking area where the Pennine Way path takes you most of the way out to Chew Head and Black Hill. After that it is the obligatory bog walk on the way back. Nice undulating little looped route around a beautiful valley.
Route Statistics: All in all a 16km day with 500m of height gain done in 4.5 hours.
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