Towpath Walks
Some canal walks are about the water. The walk from Whaley Bridge to New Mills is about everything the water passes through. This stretch of the Peak Forest Canal sits right on the edge of the Peak District, and within a couple of miles you go from a busy little town basin to a wooded valley where the loudest thing you'll hear is a dipper working the shallows.
Start at Whaley Bridge, where the canal ends in a wide basin once used to transship lime and coal onto the Cromford and High Peak Railway. The old transshipment warehouse still stands, a great stone building that now houses a heritage centre. It's worth ten minutes before you set off, partly for the exhibits and partly because the volunteers there will happily tell you which stretch of towpath is muddiest that week.
Heading north, the towpath soon crosses the River Goyt on a handsome stone aqueduct. Look down as you cross — the river runs clear over a rocky bed, and on a sunny morning you can often spot trout holding in the current. Beyond the aqueduct the canal enters the Goyt Valley, and the character changes completely. Beech and oak close in on both sides, the water turns a deep peaty green, and the towpath narrows to a single track that feels far more remote than it actually is.
This is the section that surprises people. The Peak Forest Canal is only around fifteen miles long, but this middle stretch is as pretty as anything on the better-known canals of the Midlands. Keep an eye out for herons, and in spring for the vivid flash of a kingfisher shooting low over the water. The surface here is generally good, though after heavy rain a few patches near the aqueduct get properly boggy, so boots beat trainers every time.
Approaching New Mills, the canal shares its valley with the River Goyt and, for a while, with the old railway. The town itself is built in a steep bowl, and the final stretch of walk takes you down to the Millennium Walkway, a dramatic metal footbridge bolted to the side of a sheer gorge above the river. It has nothing to do with the canal, strictly speaking, but no one comes this far and skips it.
If you've left a car at Whaley Bridge, you can either retrace your steps along the towpath — a different walk entirely in the afternoon light — or catch the train back, which takes about six minutes and feels like cheating in the best possible way. Either way, allow three to four hours at walking pace, plus time for a pint at one of the pubs near New Mills Central. This is a walk that rewards lingering, and the canal, as ever, sets a pace that suits it.
