The 'Three Ships' Birchen Edge - geograph

Birchen Edge below the Trig Point - geograph

Birchen Edge is a

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 pa ...

rock face In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on coa ...

in the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

, England, popular with walkers and novice climbers as most of the climbing routes are in the lower grade.

Walking

Birchen Edge provides an easy high-level walk with views over the nearby village of

Baslow Baslow is a village in Derbyshire, England, in the Peak District, situated between Sheffield and Bakewell, just over north of Chatsworth House. It is sited by the River Derwent, which is spanned by a 17th-century bridge, alongside which is a ...

and part of the

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...

estate. The edge is backed by a

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, generally ...

plateau. Access is via a

public footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

from the Robin Hood Inn on the

A619 road List of A roads in zone 6 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...

, about from

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

. Nearby

Gardom's Edge Gardom's Edge is a rocky outcrop near Baslow in Derbyshire, England. The shelf between Gardom's Edge and Birchen Edge is now moorland used for grazing sheep, but was inhabited and arably farmed during the Bronze Age. Cup and ring stone The are ...

and

Blackstone Edge Blackstone Edge ( ) is a gritstone escarpment at 472 m (1,549 feet) above sea level in the Pennine hills surrounded by moorland on the boundary between Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire in England. History Crossing the escarpment is Bl ...

may be incorporated into a circular walk. The

Peak District Boundary Walk The Peak District Boundary Walk is a circular walking trail, starting and finishing at Buxton and broadly following the boundary of the Peak District, Britain's first national park. The route was developed by the Friends of the Peak District (a ...

runs along the edge past Nelson's Monument.

Nelson's Monument

The monument consists of a 3-metre gritstone column with a 30 cm ball on top. It was erected in 1810 by a local businessman from Baslow called John Brightman, in honour of

Lord Nelson Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British people, British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strate ...

and was restored in 1992 by the

1805 Club The 1805 Club was founded in 1990 to accomplish three objectives. To assist in the preservation of monuments and memorials relating to Vice- Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and seafarers of the Georgian era. To promote research into the Royal Navy of ...

. Three nearby outcrops called the "Ship Rocks" have been carved with the names of three of Nelson's ships: ''

Victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...

'', '' Defiance'' and '' Royal Soverin'' (''sic'').

Climbing

There are generally good belays to be found at the tops although there are a couple of areas such as Stoker's Wall where it can be tricky. The starts can also be quite awkward where the crag is undercut. Classic routes include The Crow's Nest (

climbing grade In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a grade to a climbing route or boulder problem, intended to describe concisely the difficulty and danger of climbing it. Different types of climbing (such as spo ...

VS), Nelson's Slab (HVS), Sail Buttress (VS), Sail Chimney (S), Topsail (VS), Orpheus Wall (HVS), Peaches (E4), Trafalgar Crack (V Diff), Camperdown Crawl (VS) and Powder Monkey Parade (S – but do not underestimate it). It was also the titular inspiration for the recently built Birchen Apartments at Sheffield University.

References

External links

More detailed information and images
__NOTOC__ Climbing areas of England Mountains and hills of the Peak District Mountains and hills of Derbyshire {{England-sports-venue-stub

Walking

Nelson's Monument

Climbing

See also

References

External links