Wildboar Clough & Aircraft Wreck - Peak District

For a change of pace, I thought a nice woodland walk that developed into a decent scramble would be a nice change this time. I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to give Wildboar Clough a go, but I'm also sure there are plenty of people who find this kind of place out of reach. So I thought it would work for the curious as a guide, the familiar who'd like a watch, and those unable or unwilling to go up to something that takes a bit of experience with light climbing.
There's also an aircraft wreck at the furthest point on this walk. That of a Blenheim Mk.I bomber up on Sykes Moor, which crashed in early 1939, unfortunately killing both occupants. You can read more here: www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co...
Now, when I say I thought a scramble would look great in a video.. it wasn't so straightforward :-D I had to cut a lot of extreme close ups of rocks out.. wobbly camera angles, and shaky landings from my rockhopping! So even though the route up is fully represented, there is a lot cut out from one area.. what I thought would make nice action shots, made for a lot of slow balancing movement whilst trying not to bash my camera in, with only one hand to climb with whilst the other holds 3kg of gimbal/camera & microphone at arms length. Ordinarily I do very much enjoy this route, it's one of my favourites! But I enjoy it a lot more with all my limbs free to do it with.
Ok well here we go: Starting from a small parking spot between Torside & Woodhead reservoirs, we'll be heading west on the Longdendale trail for 10-15 minutes. Once we get to the split pool on the trail we head into the woods at the very base of what you could call Wildboar Clough. It isn't quite it yet but it's the same river we'll be following all the way up to the moors. The walk through the trees is at the perfect time of year, spring has just taken off and the trees are all a pale, bright green. The peaceful walk eventually brings us to the rocky beginnings of Wildboar Clough proper... from here it's a mild scramble around and over any way that suits you, as long as it's up! Eventually we reach what can sometimes be a significant series of waterfalls, but surprisingly it was much drier than I was expecting on this day, so they're much less impressive in terms of water. But it does allow for some safer climbing at this point as everything gets steeper!
After many scenic clambers, pools and views, the clough will start to become shallow as we near the top. Once we're level enough with the moors we head almost south by southwest over the heather until we see the pole on top of the memorial for the crash site. This is our furthest out point today, so after a look around we head exactly back the way we came. Once back at the top of Wildboar Clough we'll be staying out on the edge of the hillside and circling out towards the edge above Rollock Stones until parallel with Longdendale valley.
Again, this is ordinarily somewhere I quite enjoy climbing down, it reminds me of the film Tremors with all the rocks strewn around. You can stay off the floor almost all the way down! But with my camera, again... it was a pain! So you get an edited down version for your viewing pleasure. Almost at the bottom we reach a now closed clay pigeon shooting range called 'The Boar Clay Shooting Ground'.. We'll cut through there for a rock break and some abandoned rusty bits and bobs, along with a few final views towards Crowden and the opposite moorland. Eventually we'll be back on the Longdendale Trail with only a five minute walk back to where we parked, and our walk's end.
Thanks for watching, also for reading if you got this far. Please do like and subscribe for more of my wanders. I've got plenty more in the works!
Chapters:
0:00 - Walk begins on Longdendale Trail
4:00 - Split pool to Wildboar Clough
5:41 - Peaceful woodland walk
9:41 - Woodland viewpoint
12:45 - 360 view in woods
17:19 - Wildboar Clough rocks begin
21:09 - Viewpoint
23:49 - Sweeping panorama over crowden
25:37 - Bigger scrambles begin
31:52 - Look down waterfall and clough
36:08 - Familiar stone
42:31 - At top and viewpoint
43:30 - Heading into moorland
45:11 - Bomber wreckage into view
47:30 - Heading back
49:00 - Back around edge of clough
50:51 - View over Longdendale
51:57 - Rollick Stones descent
54:37 - Viewpoint
59:58 - Viewpoint with tree
1:00:59 - Boar Clay Shooting Ground
1:03:23 - Longdendale trail again
1:04:35 - End point
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[@geoffreyjerrom7771]

😎

[@Hebertella]

This brought back nice memories of my days as a geology student. My clambering days are behind me, but it was lovely to see a close up view of rocks and landforms and beautiful scenery from another part of the world.

[@WarrenofWalks]

That's lovely to hear @Herbertella I'm glad you enjoyed it! I find this kind of thing fascinating myself when it's other people's corner of the world. I do enjoy a slow detailed look around somewhere I've never been to. Especially the less well known spots. And I cut so much rock out of the video thinking it wouldn't be much interest to anyone else.. 😅