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Excellent White Peak walk from Tideswell but Chapel end I think could be improved but needs a walk to confirm. Traffic free tracks and exceptionally quiet road offer a very easy start then stone climb stiles across pasture where there may be cattle in summer. Limited services half way at Peak Forest.

I started in Tideswell where the parish church, Saint John the Baptist is commonly known as the 'Cathedral of the Peak', being one of the largest and most architecturally interesting churches in the area and Grade I listed. The bus from Bakewell to Castleton had deposited a group of ramblers at Great Longstone before dropping me, its remaining passenger, by the well cared for loo block, essential after a long journey.

Tideswell is a bustling place in the season but today mid morning it was very quiet. I passed through he Market Place now full of cars not stalls even on a Friday. The route climbs offering views over the attractive rooftops then takes a walled track the first of many on this part of the walk.

Two locals with their dog turned out to be the only other path users I was to see today. Winter offers new vistas, I especially like the skeletal trees in groups or majestic on their own. As I walked along the tarmac of a trafficless road I pondered the builders of the drystone walls. One side the stone had been chosen with care to offer a flat dressed face to the road while opposite this wall was jagged and random looking like it would so easily topple.

The route on OS maps has those diamonds, red or green, highlighting first the route of the Pennine Bridleway then the Limestone Way. Looking at the map I spot Limestone Way Farm, not an old stone built barn I guess.

After walking tracks for over two miles we climb a stile to enter pasture and the path follows the ground above Dam Dale following the contours avoiding Dam Cliff to Dam Dale Farm. There was a point here where OS 1:25,000 confirmed which side of the wall I should walk. Peering down onto the sheds of the farm I wondered why this huge expanse of roof didn’t have solar panels to save taking up fields.

I admit I missed the invisible plotted approach to Peak Forest because a well used path avoided a slight climb. I passed alongside Damside Farm then the road that serves the farm. This passes the recreation ground where there is a seat, bit exposed for a winter break. The track meets the road opposite the Devonshire Arms but I took a gate into the churchyard where I found more seating and for hot summer days a tap.

The road through Peak Forest is busy but it has a pavement for the plotted route and my deviation. Besides the Inn, seats and tap there is little on offer although it still has a bus between Buxton and Whaley Bridge should you need to bail out. The pavement stops just before we enter fields but there is a verge so no issue. There is then an annoying zig-zag but I can see no way to avoid it as a short cut is not access land and Dove Holes quarry has stolen the direct route.

I should have mentioned earlier that the Slow Way is also the Peak District Boundary Walk (PDBW) so there is some waymarking which is essential but not always apparent at Middle Barmoor Farm. I thought the route was blocked by a locked gate but no there is a stone stile hiding. The path drops down to the busy road which needs a short walk along a narrow verge before crossing and escaping onto a little used path.

In the dip a stream had washed away the bank and there was no sign of it ever having a bridge but I got across and when it eventually stops raining I guess it will be just a trickle. Next it’s a steep climb of two hundred feet through gorse, not the best bit of the route but still the PDBW so perhaps a bit of campaigning here for path improvement. It’s then a gentle descent into Barmoor Clough where we leave the PDBW to cross a road, perhaps not the best place to depart. The road is busy and the path opposite is little used and poor, making another climb. The ladder stile appeared to go nowhere but that’s the route, which eventually becomes a narrow walled path.

Crossing a road things improve, down a house drive then over a stile and the edge of Chapel is in sight. A few estate roads and paths lead to the main street where there are shops and a frequent bus between Stockport (Manchester Airport if you have come far) and Buxton.

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