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Three edges walk Curbar, Peak District

A fairly short, fairly easy walk with a pub-lunch-stop half-way.

Distance: 9Km, 250m ascent 2 hours but allow extra for exploring off the edge of the route, photography & lunch! Call it 4 hours for a leisurely walk with lunch.

Parking: The parking place shown is "pay and display", it does fill especially on weekends with fine weather. There free are roadside parking opportunities close by but these may fill before the car-park.

Route-finding: The need for GPS is questionable, it may be useful for reassurance in one or two places. Where one crosses the A625 (care!), walk a few yards up the road to find a path downhill making for a slightly longer but more pleasant approach to The Grouse than taking the road. The path drops steeply down to a stream then up again through the woods, a right turn takes you across the fields to The Grouse.

Refreshment: The Grouse Inn is at about the half way point, serve sandwiches, bar meals. Dogs and kids can be served in the back yard and conservatory. Walking boots are OK if not too muddy.

Description: The walk takes you along 3 edges all offering extensive views over the Derbyshire countryside. There are plenty of dramatic small outcropping crags which larger kids (ages 12 to 93) can enjoy exploring & trying to climb. The map shows a stone circle, you need some imagination to describe it as such but you can easily spot one prominent stone standing maybe 1m with a couple of smaller ones close by.

Photography: The edges present good opportunities for photos of distant scenery partly framed by dramatic cliff edges, possibly ornamented with rock-climbers. The eccentrically shaped and eroded rock outcrops can look quite impressive too.

Equipment: Boots are advisable but not essential, a few muddy patches, and a sometimes rocky path. You are never more than 3Km from a road and there is no need to carry full hill-walking emergency gear in normal weather.

Safety: There are substantial drops from some of the edges and small children should be closely supervised.