Monsal Trail from Bakewell

[SA_SA_SA]

Perhaps the absemt bridge across the road is obviously not the coombs viaduct..no not from googleearth.... My memory is of the path stopping at an embankment dowm which I coukd look down at the road and wonder where the viaduct was, I expected some sort of info board about how to see it or cycle under it etc. If I had cycled south, away from bakewell I would have gone under it, from google it seems I should have seen it when I checked left before joining road but I didnt so went home thinking it demolished....

Well this explains why I couldnt see the viaduct from the trail, the path curves away from rail bed early and has a bit near the road where I thus wrongly assumed the viaduct would have been , bahhh
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/Coombs+Road+viaduct/@53.2080758,-1.6569276,18z/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e3

Why does the path stop short of the via duct, surely it could have a short stub after the exit with notice info board across/barring the viaduct. Is the viaduct unsafe?

[sjs]

Yes its great for families but can become very busy in summer months without lockdown. The tunnels (which years ago were not open) are a sublime experience and do avoid having to negotiate walking through rivers around Chee Dale that were once the only off road alternative!

Probably one of the best Sustrans routes. (And you can access the trail on the very edge of Bakewell too if you know your routes).

Back in the late 70s or early 80s the tunnels used to be a lot of fun when you had to squeeze past the barriers and feel your way in the dark.

And Chee Dale is still one of the best of the White Peak dales, deep and dank and much less visited than Dovedale and the other honeypots.

[Mike Sales]

How things have changed. When this line was built..

John Ruskin thundered, "There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell... divine as the vale of Tempe; you might have seen the gods there morning and evening - Apollo and the sweet Muses of Light... You enterprised a railroad... You blasted its rocks away... And now every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton."

[SA_SA_SA]

I wonder why the trail hasnt been extended to Rowsley and ncn 680:

Could the haddon tunnel and coombs road viaduct not be bypassed by coombs road and where it ends the path thru / alongside manners wood to rejoin trackbed at southern exit of haddon tunnel?

[foxyrider]

I wonder why the trail hasnt been extended to Rowsley and ncn 680:

Could the haddon tunnel and coombs road viaduct not be bypassed by coombs road and where it ends the path thru / alongside manners wood to rejoin trackbed at southern exit of haddon tunnel?

You can certainly follow Coombs Road eastward - i did it @ 3 years ago, however it soon becomes a track and the drop down to Rowsley once you reach the top of the coomb is - well road would be stretching things, going down is just about doable with care but your chances of riding up would be slim!

[andy74]

This might be interest
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/60555aae89c08/HaddonTunnels.pdf

[SA_SA_SA]

Thanks ; downloaded elsewhere but v interesting..

Presumably haddon estate still oppose both rail and cycle route...why I wonder, when they would both supply paying visitors?

[andy74]

That would be my guess. No idea why though.

[PH]

In case anyone is thinking of heading that way:

Monsal Trail - temporary closure notice
From tomorrow (Monday 19 April), the section of Monsal Trail to the west of Millers Dale Station will be closed to all users, with no through route or alternative to Blackwell Mill.
This is due to a risk from falling rocks from an unstable wall above the trail itself. We are working to resolve the issue, but are unable to give a reopening time for the closure.
Updates will be provided across our social media channels and website.
For your own safety and that of others, please adhere to any closures on the trail.

[drossall]

Shorter ride but the climb upto Minninglow is challenging with a child on the back!

The on-trail bit of that climb, and some shamefully sloppy map-reading, nearly got me divorced, decades ago. We'd set out, the year after being married, to ride back to visit our parents in Cheshire, with stops in Peterborough, the Vale of Belvoir, and Matlock Bath. I'd promised an easy ride across the Peaks, on the old railway lines, and entirely failed to look closely enough to spot the three steep slopes where winding engines were previously installed. This failure was in 1984, and has not yet been forgiven

[foxyrider]

Shorter ride but the climb upto Minninglow is challenging with a child on the back!

The on-trail bit of that climb, and some shamefully sloppy map-reading, nearly got me divorced, decades ago. We'd set out, the year after being married, to ride back to visit our parents in Cheshire, with stops in Peterborough, the Vale of Belvoir, and Matlock Bath. I'd promised an easy ride across the Peaks, on the old railway lines, and entirely failed to look closely enough to spot the three steep slopes where winding engines were previously installed. This failure was in 1984, and has not yet been forgiven

The easiest way to get up on the trail from the Derwent valley involves an approach from Duffield or Belper to Wirksworth pretty much following the railway line - its still got some climbing but not as much or as steep

[drossall]

Now if you'd told me that 37 years ago, it might have been some use

[Teggletone]

One wintry Sunday afternoon in 1955 a small group of Heanor Clarion members, having ridden from Macclesfield via the Cat and Fiddle. passed through Buxton and followed the A6 as far as Blackwell Mill. We were hoping to reach Monsal Head before the tea room closed and decided that, rather than tackle the long climb up Topley Pike, it would be quicker to stay at river level. There was, and still is, a mostly rideable, footpath which would take us through Chee Dale to Millers Dale then along well surfaced tracks and a tarmac road to our destination. All went well until we reached the stepping stones along the foot of the cliff opposite Chee Tor - they were under the surface of a swiftly flowing River Wye! With hindsight, we should have turned back but the "obvious" solution was as follows; High above us we could see Chee Tor Railway Bridge which crosses the river. The twin track, Derby - Manchester mainline ran over the bridge shortly before plunging into Chee Tor No.1 [?] Tunnel. The tracks, at "our" end of the bridge could be reached by climbing up a steep approach embankment then shinning up to ,and over, the bridge parapet. After crossing the bridge, and reassured by the fact that the colour light signal on "our" track was still at red, it was back over the parapet and, then, the slither down a gravel scree to the river bank. We were now on the wrong side of the Wye but knew that downstream of the stepping stones there was a footbridge. Finally [!]There was much cursing and swearing as all of this took place. the slope was so steep that the bikes had to be passed hand -to - hand going up. Except for the signal light the operation took place in the dark as all of our bikes had dynamos. Thank goodness we didn't agree to the suggestion from one bright spark that, as we were now at railway level, we might as well stay up there as far as Millers Dale station! The team room at Monsal Head was long closed when we arrived but the nearby pub was now open! Little did we know that 50 or so years later the trains over Chee Tor Bridge would be replaced by cyclists and that, more recently, they could ride through lighted tunnels.