Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Five miles there and back on a level former railway between Hayfield and New Mills town centre, two and a quarter hours, and an access-for-all route that prams and mobility scooters use as much as walkers. Start at the Sett Valley Trail car park in Hayfield, where council charges apply at £3.50 for three hours and £7 all day, 8am to 8pm from April to October. The surface is smooth and traffic-free the whole way, which makes it a genuinely kind walk for an arthritic dog, the River Sett is reachable at several points for a drink, and the Torrs gorge and Millennium Walkway at the far end are worth the extra half mile.
Five and a quarter miles and about three hours round the reservoir and up William Clough to the Snake Path col, the route the 1932 mass trespass took. Start from the Sett Valley Trail car park in Hayfield, a Derbyshire County Council site where charges apply from 8am to 8pm April to October and 9am to 5pm in winter, at £3.50 for three hours or £7 all day. The clough gives constant running water and shallow crossings, but the reservoir itself is fenced and out of bounds for swimming, and this is National Trust moorland where short leads are asked for all year and matter most from March to July when the birds are nesting.
Eighteenth-century village pub in Hayfield, the starting point for Kinder Reservoir and the Snake Path. Dogs are welcomed into the bar area, with treats and water bowls kept behind it, and the pub makes a point of being a dog-lovers' local. A sunny beer garden for after the reservoir loop.
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