Bleaklow Head

About Bleaklow Head

Bleaklow Head is the high point at the western side of Bleaklow, a largely peat-covered gritstone moor in the Derbyshire High Peak near Glossop. It sits north of Kinder Scout across the Snake Pass, with the Woodhead Pass beyond to the north. The Pennine Way crosses the top, which is marked by a large cairn of stones.

Bleaklow holds three summits above 2,000 feet: Bleaklow Head at 633 m, Bleaklow Stones about 3.1 km east along an indefinite ridge, and Higher Shelf Stones 1.4 km to the south. The moor is the second-highest ground in Derbyshire, the shallow bowl of Swains Greave on its eastern side is the source of the River Derwent, and the most easterly point in the British Isles above 2,000 feet lies near Bleaklow Stones.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Bleaklow (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for England — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in England ·check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 53.461, -1.859. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is tiny cairn on peat hag. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level

Record revised

05-Jan-20

Drop measured from

SK065901 · 505 m

Classification history: Nuttalls give the large cairn at SK092959 but mention that the new location is slightly higher. Bridge also gave this position together with an alternative at SK115963. Dropped from Trail 100 list Jan 2020.

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Long-distance paths past this hill

One waymarked long-distance route runs within 2.5 km of the summit — useful if you are linking this hill into a longer walk, or want a made path for the approach.

Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

Reaching Bleaklow Head by train

3 National Rail stations sit within 8 km of the summit — close enough to make a car-free day of it. Distances are straight lines, not walking routes.

Each station page lists every hill in its reach, long-distance paths from the door and a live-times link — see all stations with hills in reach. Station positions from NaPTAN (OGL v3.0).

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

Which hill this one belongs to

Bleaklow Head is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Kinder Scout (636 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 505 m.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks