The Peak District consists of a central limestone plateau with a number of deep river valleys, and a surround of shales and sandstones. The sandstones – gritstone in the local terminology – form elongated crags and tors, often no more than about 20m high. These run up the eastern side of the Derwent Valley from Chatsworth to the upper reaches of the Derwent beyond Howden Reservoir. Kinder Scout is surrounded by high and remote outcrops just below the plateau, including Kinder Downfall which provides ice climbing in a good winter. There are fewer and more scattered western edges, which finish north of Leek at the magificent tiers of the Roaches. There is more climbing further north – Laddow north of Longdendale and the Dovestones Quarries – but I have few photographs of these areas.
The depths of the sandstone series vary from 300m in the east to more than a 1000m in the west, with many different depositional layers. These vary from very fine grained rock with sharp edges, kind to hands, to extremely rough and rounded rock which is very abrasive but provides magnificent friction.
Eventually, this will be a tour around the gritstone edges: Birchen and Gardom’s; Baslow, Curbar and Froggat; the Burbage valley including Carl Wark and Higgar Tor; Stanage and Carhead Rocks; Derwent Edge and the Wheelstones; Kinder Downfall and other crags; Castle Naze and Windgather; and the Roaches, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw Rocks.
Peak District Snow
Birchen Edge and Gardom’s Edge
Baslow, Curbar and Froggatt Edges
The Burbage Valley
Stanage and Carhead Rocks
Further Reading
Roger Dalton, Howard Fox and Peter Jones. Classic Landforms of the Dark Peak. The Geographical Association 1999. ISBN 1-899085-61-0.
Tony Waltham. The Peak District. Landscape and Geology. The Crowood Press 2021. ISBN 978-1-78500-874-0