Monsal Head > Monsal Dale: 2mls
Walk distance: 2 miles | Date recorded: 22 March 2024
Start point: Monsal Head | Google Map
Map app: View on OutdoorActive | Contact me for GPX file
Walk description
A short two-mile stroll from Monsal Head down to Monsal Dale and along the River Wye which is guaranteed to blow the cobwebs away. It drops some 250 feet so there’s a bit of a slope to climb on the way back up. But it’s well worth the effort.
There’s a short-stay carpark opposite the Monsal Head Hotel, but it’s only for an hour. And a larger, long-stay car park just to the side. But it’s often possible to find free parking on the road towards Little Longstone.
Meals, snacks, drinks and ice-creams are usually available at the hotel and next door cafe. And public toilets by the larger carpark have recently reopened.
A ‘Relive’ version of the walk. Click to play and use the expand option to view in full-screen. Click here for more Monsal Trail ‘Relives’.
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Click here to open an A4 printable pdf of map.
1: Go through the gap in the stone wall just beyond the cafe and turn right down the narrow path. It can get a bit muddy at times and there are a series of uneven steps, so it’s not ideal for pushchairs.
2: Ignore the footpath sign on the left which would take you down the Monsal Trail and the Headstone Viaduct, and keep following the track straight ahead and down the slope.
3: At the end of the narrow path, go past a stone farm building and turn immediately left down the gravel drive, keeping to the right just past the farm gate.
4: Cross the narrow footbridge over the River Wye and turn left along the path beside the river bank. (There is a path sloping up to the right from the other side of the bridge that will take you up to the Monsal Trail, close to the remains of Monsal Dale Station.)
5: Turning left from the bridge, follow the path for a short distance and pass under one of the arches to Headstone Viaduct. This marvel of Victorian engineering was built to carry steam trains on a line which once connected London and Manchester. (Click for more on the railway.)
6: There are some wonderful views along the Wye from here. Keep in the same direction with the river on your left for some distance.
7: Go through a gate and past an attractive weir. This was built both as a landscape feature, and also to improve conditions for the many anglers who once fished along the river.
8: Look out for a small footbridge on your left. Just beyond here is a popular spot for families to picnic, and for children to paddle where the river is shallow. Cross the bridge and turn left up the path.
9: Follow this narrow path up the slope, passing through a number of wooden gates.
10: There was a great view of Headstone Viaduct when I recorded this walk. Normally trees hide this impressive bridge over Monsal Dale. But they’d recently been cut back because of Dutch elm disease.
11: Ignore the footpath on your right as you near the top and continue up the slope until you can exit through the gap in the stone wall on the right, returning to Monsal Head.
12: Hobbs Cafe on the right has only recently reopened, with outside tables giving wonderfully panoramic views over the valley below. Monsal Head Hotel also serves drinks and meals from the main building, as well as a next-door stable block. And the Packhorse Inn in nearby Little Longstone is always worth a visit.