The Roystone Grange Trail

Every hill and valley has a story to tell. At first glance Roystone Grange looks nothing out of the ordinary – just a typical White Peak valley in the Peak District National Park. There is a rather strange-looking group of trees on a hill to the east, but not much else of note. However, archaeologists from Sheffield University carried out diggings over several years and unearthed evidence of the existence of Roman farms and prehistoric camps, and a medieval grange run by Cistercian monks. The National Park Authority subsequently developed and waymarked the Roystone Grange Trail, which takes you back 6,000 years into history.

Industrial History

To start with the history is a little more recent, as you follow the trackbed of the old Cromford and High Peak Railway. It crosses two huge stone embankments and goes through a cutting where cowslips and orchids grow, as well as an old stone quarry with a rusting crane tucked in the shade of the rockface. Further on is a complex of Victorian brick kilns. High-firing silica sands found near here were made into bricks for use as liners for the steel furnaces of Sheffield.

Mysterious Minninglow

Overlooking the route is Minninglow Hill, topped by a crown of gaunt beech trees that hides an ancient barrow called Minning Low. This was excavated in 1851 revealing a very large megalithic chamber and several imperfect cists (stone coffins). One of these, however, was intact and with its capstone in place. As you descend to Roystone Grange itself there’s a Bronze Age barrow on a nearby hilltop. Mysteriously, several skulls were excavated here without the rest of their skeletons. The dig also revealed two Roman dress pins.

Working on the Grange

The original Roystone Grange farm, then known as Revestones, was sited a little to the south of the present buildings. In the 14th century Adam of Herthill gave the farm to the Cistercian abbey of Garendon in Leicestershire. Monks and local ‘lay brothers’ would have worked the sheep farm and sold most of the wool abroad, but hard times would follow after bad winters and the plague and it was no doubt a hard life. North of the present day farm, on a grassy strip beside the road that until recently housed a disused dairy, are the foundations of an old Roman manor. The 2nd-century building would have had rubble-built walls and a thatched roof supported by aisle posts. It’s a reminder of just how many layers of history can be found in just a short walk.

From the car park follow the High Peak Trail eastwards, signposted Middleton Top. Cross the lane at the end of the car park and out across the huge stone embankment. The former railway line swings southwards and beyond a cutting reaches an old quarry. A waymarked concessionary path up to Minninglow Hill leaves on the left just beyond this point.    

Continue across another high embankment on the trail above Minninglow Grange. Go through a short cutting to reach a path junction. Just ahead is the site of the former brick kilns, on the right. Leave the trail at this junction, turning left through a gate for a wide, walled cart track known as Gallowlow Lane that swings southeastwards. 

After 0.25 miles (400m), and where the Minninglow concessionary route comes back in, climb the stile in the right-hand wall and follow the path down the field and under the old railway bridge. Walk down through the next field and through a squeeze stile in the wall at the bottom, then continue down a grassy hollow. Go over a high stile in the wall on the left, then continue downhill with the wall now on your right. Beyond a gateway continue down to go through a small gate. Head diagonally left through the next field to reach a stile and on to a lane.

Turn left the short distance to visit the pump house. Now turn round and walk up the lane past Roystone Grange. A little beyond the buildings, to the left of the road, is where the Roman manor once stood. Continue all the way up until you reach the junction with Minninglow Lane.

Turn left and follow this to the road at the end. Turn right and walk along the road northwards, turning right before the railway bridge for the car park and the start of the walk.