Captain's Log

The Snake

There was an item on the BBC news website this week that suggested that the Snake Pass road might be closed for good. There have been too many landslips and it costs too much to sort it out apparently. The current repairs required are far too expensive for the world’ sixth largest economy to fund. I’m not sure whether there was any truth in the suggestion or just government department bean counters fighting their position in the public domain. If they decide to keep it open then something needs to be done soon. There is a section now that is down to one lane with one half of the road (actually up to the white line) having slipped away into the valley. I’m not sure what would happen to the farms and houses further up the valley, if they did finally close the road. The news item did spur me on to get any walks done in the valley done before the other half the road slips away.

Today’s walk would start at the Birchin Clough carpark, a little further west from what used to be the Snake Inn. I’d then climb up Fair Brook Clough to the Kinder Scout plateau, before walking along its northern edge towards its western one. There would then be an extensive search carried out to find the wreckage of jets  Sabres XD707 and XD730 that crashed on the northwest edge of Kinder in 1954. My return to the carpark would be via the Snake Path along Ashop Clough. 

Fair Brook Clough

You might think that Snake Pass takes its name from the way the road meanders through the valley. It doesn’t; it takes it from the Snake Inn. Although, it isn’t an inn anymore. It closed in 2019 and has been converted to holiday apartments. The first part of the walk took me past the former Snake Inn. I followed the A57 southwards for just under a mile. The road isn’t that busy, but vehicles do tend to speed and so care is required. There is a grass verge to escape to for most of the way, which makes the experience a little safer. I was glad to leave the road though and head down to the River Ashop where a footbridge delivered me to the opposite bank. I was busting for a pee at this point and I’d just unzipped my trousers when three young women appeared walking down towards me on the Gate Side Clough path. I cursed my luck, tensed my bladder muscles and headed off up Fair Brook clough to find a quieter spot. I reckon this is the best path on to the Kinder Scout plateau. It has a gradual ascent, offers wonderful views and you doesn't get that many people walking it…well apart from the three women I just met. Fair Brook also has some lovely cascades and waterfalls. The only thing wrong today was that the weather looked rather gloomy, despite the weather forecasters rubber stamping sun on today’s forecast. A light rain even started as I approached the rocky final part of the ascent. Thankfully it stopped when I reached the top and I sat on my favourite stone to admire the view and drink a coffee. It all looked rather grey and bleak over the moors though. Never mind, the day was still young. 

Kinder's Northern Edge

There were some exceedingly muddy stretches on the plateau’s northern perimeter path, although most of these were easily avoided. Apart from the stunning views down into the valley and across the moors, the northern edge of Kinder Scout has superb rock formations too. The rocks came in many wonderful shapes and sizes and provided much interest on my journey westwards. A light hail started and then it started to snow. Crikey, this wasn’t in the plan! I wrapped myself in a fleece and anorak, and didn’t take them off for the rest of the walk. The snow stopped after about 10 minutes, but I got several more hail showers throughout the day. It was bitterly cold too and got even darker as I approached the north-western tip of the plateau. I could almost reach up and touch the thick cloud above me. The jets from Manchester Airport sounded as though they were flying just a few metres above my head. An almost perfect setting then to search for the aircraft wreckage of Sabres XD707 and XD730. 

Sabres XD707 And XD730

On the 22nd of July 1954, four Sabres went on a training mission from Linton-on-Ouse. They flew in two groups of two. One group had jets piloted by Flying Officer Jim Horne and Flight Lieutenant Alan Green. On the return from the exercise, Horne and Green flew into clouds. It is not known exactly what happened. The reservoir keeper at Kinder Reservoir said he saw two jets drop out of the cloud and head off towards the Kinder Scout plateau and then they disappeared back into the clouds again. The reservoir keeper was unaware that there had been a crash and so did not alert authorities. Since the area was covered in cloud for two days, searching aircraft failed to locate the crash site. It was left to a walker travelling between Hayfield and the Snake Inn to find the grim aftermath. It would seem that the planes either collided in the cloud and hit the Kinder Scout plateau or just flew into the hill directly. Either way the impact was such that debris was left at the impact location on the plateau and also down in Ashop Clough, half a mile away in the valley. 

I drifted ten metres off the plateau’s perimeter path and almost immediately found a collection of wreckage. I soon found  that the whole impact area was covered in wreckage. There was a wire fence that ran along the broad ridge of the plateau (this heads to the northwest tip of the plateau). There was a stile over the fence and I made my way towards it. Find the stile and you've found the wreckage, since it was all distributed in maybe a 100 metre square area each side of the fence around this stile. I was surprised there was so much wreckage still there, since the spot wasn’t far from Kinder’s perimeter path which is very popular with walkers. I was getting quite cold now and so decided to move on,

I started descending over a trackless hillside into Ashop Clough. The wreckage in the valley wouldn’t be hard to find, since I could already see it from my position  high up on the hillside. I could even see a vague track heading off towards it in the valley below. It didn’t take me long to get down there. There was a significant amount of wreckage including a couple of wheels. There was also a plaque memorial to Flight OfficerJim Horne. I was quite surprised at the large distance between the impact area and the location of this wreckage. The impact must have been tremendous to throw it this far. I also found a small amount of wreckage closer to the River Ashop. There is supposed to be an engine around this area too but I couldn’t find it. It was a sad story and looked like a desperate scene on a day like today. I headed off to join the Snake Path which would take me back towards the Snake road.

Return

I thought I might have a problem crossing the River Ashop to get on to the Snake Path, but it was so narrow that I could almost jump across it. The hail started again as I made  my way eastwards, back towards the Snake Inn. It was a pretty path with an excellent view of the northern ramparts of Kinder Scout. It just needed a better day than today to appreciate it. Another hail storm hit me and then moved on down the valley. I turned off the Snake Path into a forestry plantation and followed a track northwards towards Birchin Clough. I knew I was going to be disappointed in this last  stretch or the walk and in that respect I wasn’t disappointed, if that makes any sense. This area is frequented by ‘non-wildcampers’ who have a ‘leave a trace’ philosophy. There are fire pits and rubbish dumped along this pretty woodland valley. At one one fire pit, I could see where the idiots had chopped bark off a nearby tree. If there is maybe positive thing, is that if they create havoc down here, they aren’t creating havoc up in the hills. I climbed up the track to the carpark and found a long line of toilet paper thrown next to the path. 

I tried to not let this latter part of the walk spoil the whole day. Despite the poor weather I’d had a great time on Kinder and made another tick on my Dark Peak Aircraft Crash Site list. I think the northern edge of Kinder is my favourite part of the plateau. I didn’t pass anybody all day; maybe everybody else watched a different forecast to me.