BAKEWELL, PEAK DISTRICT

DISTANCE 19.3KM (12 MILES) CLIMBING 550M (1,805FT) TIME 1HR 30MINS TO 2HRS

Route summary: A great little slice of classic White Peak riding, with cycle paths along converted railway lines, singletrack through woodlands and fast blasts across grassy fields, while passing pretty villages and a stately manor house

Start/finish: Hassop Station car park, on the Monsal Trail (postcode: DN45 1NW, Grid Ref: SK218/706) 1

Go out of the bottom of the car park to the Monsal Trail and turn left on it. Rise for 1.5km then turn off at Bakewell Station car park. Bear left on the road and immediately left again, over the bridge/Monsal Trail, steeply uphill. Ride over the top and, as it starts to descend, bear off right on a wide track. Follow this downhill, to and through Edensor village. Turn right by the main road along the grassy bank, cutting the corner off the tarmac.

2

Follow the road until it starts descending. Go right after the cattle grid, past Calton Lees car park and garden centre. Bear right to a crossroads, where you keep straight ahead, through a gate on a bridleway, uphill. After a zig-zag between buildings, stay on the main track, through a gate, and turn left along a field edge.

3

Turn left at the end, through a gate, and follow a faint track across the field, to a gate in some woods, where the trail becomes more obvious. Follow it left, then go left again on a wider track. Bear left then turn right before a gate, downhill, leaving the woods on a wide track. 4

Go right at a T-junction. When this track bears sharply right by some farm buildings, keep straight ahead and follow the bridleway across a field. Rejoin the trail and head left on it, around a right-hand bend. Fork right as it bears left, before a bridge, through a gate on a bridleway.

5

Continue across a field, then bear right to a gate. Join a good track, turning left on it. At a junction, turn left then right to join the Monsal Trail back to the Bakewell Station car park, just after passing under a bridge. Go left to and on the road, down to the A619, and either left over the bridge into town for refreshments or right to continue.

6

Turn left towards Riverside Business Park (on a deadend road), but then bear right on a track at the end, keeping ahead, uphill. Go across some fields and through some gates as the track becomes narrower, back down to the Monsal Trail. Turn right on this, back to the car park, just under the next bridge.