Bleaklow is a high, largely peat-covered,

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for p ...

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generall ...

in the Derbyshire High Peak near the town of Glossop. It is north of

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and national nature reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands; t ...

, across the

Snake Pass Snake Pass is a hill pass in the Derbyshire section of the Peak District, crossing the Pennines between Glossop and the Ladybower Reservoir at Ashopton. The road was engineered by Thomas Telford and opened in 1821. The pass carries the A57 r ...

( A57), and south of the A628 Woodhead Pass. Much of it is nearly 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level and the shallow bowl of Swains Greave on its eastern side is the source of the River Derwent. Bleaklow Head (633 m), marked by a huge cairn of stones, the high point at the western side of the moor, is a Hewitt and is crossed by the Pennine Way. It is one of three summits on this plateau above 2,000 feet, the others being Bleaklow Stones, some 1.9 miles (3 km) to the east along an indefinite ridge, and Higher Shelf Stones, 0.9 miles (1.5 km) south of Bleaklow Head. At 633 metres (2,077 feet), Bleaklow is the second-highest point in Derbyshire and the area includes the most easterly point in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

over 2,000 feet, near Bleaklow Stones.

Description

Much of the main plateau of Bleaklow is a boggy peat moorland, seamed by 'groughs' (pronounced 'gruffs', water-eroded channels in the peat) and lacking strong changes in elevation – in poor conditions its traverse is probably the most navigationally challenging in the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moo ...

Conservation

Bleaklow is part of the National Trust's

High Peak Estate The High Peak Estate is an area of Pennine moorland in the ownership of the National Trust in the Dark Peak area of Derbyshire, England. The National Trust High Peak Estate is to be known as the 'Dark Peak Area' from summer 2010 which is now p ...

. There has been considerable investment of resources in recent years to block many of the eroded peat gulleys as part of major schemes to re-wet and restore healthy '' Sphagnum'' moss communities which are essential for peat formation, carbon capture, and reduction in dissolved carbon which contaminates water supplies. Much of this work has been coordinated by the

Moors for the Future Moors for the Future is a partnership of public and private organisation to protect and promote moorland in the United Kingdom. Based in Edale in the Peak District National Park, much of the work carried out by Moors for the Future is in the Nation ...

Partnership, funded by EU LIFE+ programme between 2010 and 2015. This involved laying of geotextiles to stabilise eroded peat, creating 4,000 mini-dams to retain water, introducing 150,000 moorland plants and spreading 807 million ''Sphagnum'' fragments across the whole Bleaklow Project site.

Views

The summit affords views across Manchester, Lancashire and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

to the west and towards the Hope Valley, Holme Moss,

Emley Moor The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is made up of a concrete tower and apparatus that began ...

and Yorkshire to the east. In exceptional weather conditions it is possible to see Snowdonia in North Wales.

Aircraft crash

20171108 Bleaklow Bomber 1948 Superfortress

There are a number of aircraft crash sites on Bleaklow. On 3 November 1948, USAF

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and produc ...

RB-29A Superfortress 44-61999, of the 16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 91st Reconnaissance Group, 311th Air Division, Strategic Air Command, crashed at Higher Shelf Stones, Bleaklow (), en route from

Scampton Scampton is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish including Brampton and Broadholme at the 2011 census was 1,358. It is situated north of Lincoln, south-east of ...

Burtonwood Burtonwood is a village in the civil parish of Burtonwood and Westbrook, in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the name Burtonwood is known worldwide as the location of the ...

. All 13 crew members were killed. A large amount of wreckage of the

Bleaklow Bomber The Bleaklow Bomber was a US Air Force (USAF) Boeing RB-29A Superfortress that crashed near Higher Shelf Stones on Bleaklow in the Peak District in 1948. It was modified as a reconnaissance aircraft, rather than a bomber. Superfortress ''Over ...

is still visible. A memorial was erected at the site in 1988. There is public access to the area.

Gallery

References

External links

*Peak District Information - Bleaklo

*Computer-generated summit panoram
Bleaklow
{{Peaks of the Peak District Hewitts of England Mountains and hills of the Peak District Mountains and hills of Derbyshire Nuttalls Moorlands of England High Peak, Derbyshire Aviation accidents and incidents locations in England