The view from Shining Tor

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Our view

"Fabulous panoramic views, a Spanish Shrine and ruins of Errwood Hall"

Walk directions

Just beyond the south end of the car park, take a footpath right to Stakeside. Climb through a small area of woodland then join a stone track heading uphill. Pass through a gateway and continue uphill towards Stakeside, rising up a grassy bilberry-threaded spur between sparse lines of trees.

Stay left of a wall on your right at a path junction, ignoring the path to Errwood Hall through the wall. Instead, take the ongoing path towards the Cat and Fiddle distillery. Shortly after a transmitter in the distance comes into view, take a footpath bearing right through a gate in the wall signed to Shining Tor. The eroding path dips briefly then rises to the trig point on Shining Tor’s summit.

At the summit there is a 360-degree panoramic viewpoint with views of Shutlingsloe’s pointed peak, Kinder plateau, Combs Hill and Axe Edge. On exceptionally fine days you may be able to see as far as The Wrekin and beyond Manchester’s skyline. A line of stone flags now leads along the broad ridgeline and across a slight saddle past Cats Tor (where the stone flags end) to Oldgate Nick (spot the holloway or sunken track) and towards Pym Chair, a legendary stone seat of a local highwayman.

Just before Pym Chair, cut the corner rightwards towards Windgather to avoid a short narrow and sunken section of country lane over the pass. Turn right along the lane then follow a traffic-avoiding path beside the road where a path turns left towards Windgather.

At an informal roadside parking area, take a footpath right towards Errwood. At the next waymarker stay right towards Errwood then take some stone steps down to the circular ‘Spanish shrine’ at the edge of woodland.

The path from the shrine continues back above the trees to rejoin the Errwood path. Descend gently above the forest on your right then more steeply down a clear tongue between woodland, passing a side path to Foxlow Edge on the way towards Errwood.

Turn right (again towards Errwood) at a waymarked junction, then descend a few steps towards a stream. Turn left beside the stream towards Errwood Hall – do not cross the bridge by the junction, you will cross the stream lower down on boardwalk, then rise gently on a stepped path. In early summer there is a good display of rhododendrons, then the ruins of the hall appear to your right. Descend to an oblique junction and turn left. This wide track undulates through rhododendron and oak woodland to a green forestry gate. Continue ahead and through a gap in a stone wall where the track bends right, descending grassy heathland to the car park.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Moorland tracks with paved sections, a few places may get boggy in wet conditions; no stiles

Landscape - Rough pasture, heather moorland and woodland

Dog friendliness - Keep dogs on lead (access land, livestock and ground-nesting birds)

Parking - Errwood Hall car park

Toilets en route - None on route

Walks in Derbyshire Dog-friendly walks in Derbyshire

About the walk

The River Goyt begins its journey on the moors of Axe Edge and Goyt Moss before flowing northwards to join the Mersey at Stockport. An old Roman, trade and salters’ route later known as The Street straddled it at Goyt Bridge before climbing over the Shining Tor ridge at Pym Chair. It is likely that... an alternative version over the pass climbed more directly (and therefore steeply)through Oldgate Nick, leading to the sunken track still visible there. In 1830, Manchester industrialist Samuel Grimshawe chose this remote valley to build Errwood Hall, as a wedding present for his son. The family imported 40,000 rhododendrons and azaleas for the gardens, using their ocean yacht, the Mariquita. In its heyday the estate had a staff of 20, and included a coal mine, a watermill, housing for the servants and a private school. However, even the Grimshawes couldn’t resist Stockport’s ever-growing need for water, and in 1938 the house was demolished for the newly built Fernilee Reservoir. The second reservoir, the Errwood, was built higher up the valley 30 years later. Little Goyt Bridge was dismantled and rebuilt upstream, and the valley was changed forever. For a while it became the destination of seemingly every Sunday car outing from Greater Manchester, until new car parks and a one-way system initiated by the National Park Authority restored relative order to this once peaceful beauty spot. This walk takes you back to the 19th century, to the time of the Grimshawes, but first you will get an overview of the valley by climbing the grassy spur dividing the Goyt and Shooter’s Clough. You will then climb on to the high panoramic viewpoint of Shining Tor, where on a very clear day you can see past Shutlingsloe’s summit as far as The Wrekin in the south and across the skyscrapers of Manchester to the Lancashire hills in the north. Stride out along the paved ridgeline to Cats Tor for another great panoramic viewpoint, then descend via The Street to a wild, partially wooded combe. Here lies the Spanish Shrine to St Joseph, built by the Grimshawes in memory of their governess, Dolores de Ybarguen (hence D de Y inscribed in the chapel). The circular, stone-built shrine offers welcome shade on a hot summer’s day, but is also still used for private religious worship, with many dedications to those no longer alive on display under the colourful mosaic.

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Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

About the area

The natural features of this central English county range from the modest heights of the Peak District National Park, where Kinder Scout stands at 2,088 ft (636 m), to the depths of its remarkable underground caverns, floodlit to reveal exquisite Blue John stone. Walkers and cyclists will enjoy the High Peak Trail which extends from the Derwent Valley to the limestone plateau near Buxton, and for many, the spectacular scenery is what draws them to the area.