Headstone, Cressbrook and Litton tunnels on the Monsal Trail will be closed this Wednesday 17th September from 9am to 1pm, due to National Grid works cutting the power supply.

September skies over Lyme. Don’t forget you can still get completely free entry to the house and garden when cycling or using public transport until the end of this month! www.peaksandpuddles.com/cycle-routes...

Winding roads to Windgather

Fed up with pavement parking? We're supporting @livingstreets.bsky.social to show where pavements are used as car parks to the detriment of all who walk/wheel. Go & take photos (make sure you cover over reg numbers) & upload them to the Living Streets map: lnkd.in/ekEmPn3q Contribute by 22 Nov

These Steel Cotton Rail Trail walking guides are superbly good! Sheffield to Manchester station to station with so much local interest and stunning scenery.

Fernilee reservoir old railway trail. If like me you thought the battle for this to be a defacto bridleway was won when the kissing gates were replaced by easy open bridleway gates: no. The saga continues and we must fight this absolute nonsense from United Utilities and @peakdistrict.bsky.social.

Safety and space at risk as SUVs reach 30% of car market in English cities, researchers warn

Main route into Lyme East gate now totally closed. Apparently the wooden bridge and steps are life expired too. Do we need to push for the old bridge to actually be repaired or any new crossing being cycle friendly?

Errwood Reservoir last week compared with late August 2021. Being the upper reservoir, water is always let down to keep Fernilee topped up, but the difference is still startling.

The Cage is in a cage.

The figures on lifesaving 20mph limits are astonishing. So why is the Labour government ignoring for English regions what their own colleagues in Wales and London have achieved and proven? Where is the funding and resolve to make national policy and save lives? @jon4highpeak.bsky.social

Love the farcical size of these temporary speed limit signs on the road past Windgather Rocks! Maybe most Cheshire roads could do with similar? I assume due to the no-end-in-sight B5470 closure, though thankfully I haven’t felt much new rat running the few times I’ve been there this year.

FAO anyone who cycles through Lyme Park. Step-free route between East gate and Mudhurst Lane is blocked, as the bridge over the brook is a bit crumbly. @peaksandpuddles.com

The valley awaits! Spring Bank in New Mills offers this scintillating teaser of everything the Sett Valley can offer you on a bike. Will it be the fearsome climb of Sitch Lane and tumbling into Hayfield around the foot of Lantern Pike, or the easy option of the Sett Valley Trail?

The valley awaits! Spring Bank in New Mills offers this scintillating teaser of everything the Sett Valley can offer you on a bike. Will it be the fearsome climb of Sitch Lane and tumbling into Hayfield around the foot of Lantern Pike, or the easy option of the Sett Valley Trail?

The Sett Valley Trail will finally be getting a new, marked (still not exactly brilliant) crossing over High Hill Rd thanks to a neighbouring development. Does this mean we can also finally lose the heavy, noisy, difficult gates, that apparently it is SO important we shut? Well I will be asking.

Bridleway 102M appreciation post. (Not my first.) That mini dazzler where Stockport meets the Peak, with the most stunning views and just the right amount of romping off-beat vibes (yes vibrations) to make you feel like you’re on an actual adventure, without needing a mountain bike.

Derbyshire County Council proposing its first marked red route to replace the clearway at Mam Tor because, and I enjoyed their reasoning: “many motorists do not understand how this works.” www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/news...

Look at that, Middlewood Way access at Poynton Coppice finally rejigged! That caught me by surprise. Before and after:

I keep meaning to go and check it out, but Street View has beaten me to it for the new filter under the Peak Forest Canal on Green Lane, Romiley. Surprised this big local win hasn’t been celebrated more. One of those “wouldn’t it be nice if” that they actually did! Well done Stockport Council.

Hope Valley Active Travel Masterplan survey Plenty of things that should’ve already happened a long time ago. Quite a lot of “signage and wayfinding” where I’m pretty sure it should specify 20mph limits as a minimum intervention. Please do respond! www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/news...

NEW: Big study of low-traffic neighbourhoods in London suggest they cut road injuries and deaths by more than a third within their boundaries with no apparent negative safety effect on nearby roads. This feels a *major* boost for proponents of such schemes. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The view from Nether Red Brook on the north face of Kinder is here to lighten up your Bluesky.

Peak Forest Canal today. Was just trying to cycle to the supermarket actually but it insisted on photos. 🚲 www.peaksandpuddles.com/cycle-routes...

Old Roads of Rock Cycle route available now on Peaks & Puddles www.peaksandpuddles.com/cycle-routes...

Visited the Heaton Mersey Common in Stockport pathways upgrading project. 2km of upgraded paths with fully accessible entrances from all around the park. Good connections to local schools.

See it, pull it, sorted. The great space invader Himalayan balsam is now starting to flower, soon it’ll be spreading further. Take a little time out to protect the plant life and diversity of your favourite trails and places. Help prevent soil erosion. Get a bit sweaty. Feel good.

We’ve launched a new national Discord server under the banner People Powered Streets—building on the success of Walk Ride GM’s server, which brought together 400+ advocates and boosted our impact. Join us and help spread the word to fellow campaigners! discord.gg/ayXhswNetb

Seeking shade and that cool cycling breeze, along the river valleys Goyt, Sett, Kinder. 🚲 www.peaksandpuddles.com/cycle-routes...

Big green offer from Lyme. Free (yes free!) entry to house and garden if you arrive by bus, train or bike until 31st August 2025. National Trust hand so many free family entry vouchers out via Retch newspapers encouraging car trips so it’s brilliant to have an offer skewed towards green travel.

Town and country in June.

Lovely evening to be a barn owl.

Here is a 🧵on what I think the ideal cycleway should look like, based on many years of me cycling on Dutch cycle infrastructure all over the country 👇

Yes. @jon4highpeak.bsky.social

Scorching blue skies? No thanks, these are the brooding High Peak cycling days I’ve been waiting for. Warm with a few patches of drizzle crossing the dark/white divide. Perfect!

This lovely rain dampening the ground also good for highlighting the dire state of the Peak Forest Canal towpath between New Mills and Whaley. 15 year old tarmac barely existing. The only alternative to the A6. Been trying to raise this for years, no one wants to know. Tell me it’s not just me!

We’re calling on everyone who cares about nature: write to your MP now. Show them we won’t stand by while vital protections are ripped up: action.rspb.org.uk/page/159517/...

A thread about the damaged/degraded section of the Middlewood Way, and some good news.

Hadn’t cycled the Chinley Churner for a weirdly long time. It just never fails to hit the right notes for a quick heart-pounding, head-clearing, joy to be alive feeling.

In stock at Sainsbury’s Local in New Mills right now, you’ll find zero moral responsibility.

Top of Kinder Downfall absolutely bone dry at the weekend. But water still tumbling down the steeper sided gullies, showing how precious our big, spongey reservoir in the sky is, holding back the flow.

Storm clouds and lightning over deepest, luckiest south west Peak today. Just a 60 second burst of (genuinely thrilling) rain further north. Dreaming of puddles and a half full allotment water butt.

Peak District 2025. Are you even in the National Park if there’s not an abandoned smashed up vehicle? This new feature on the Fernilee fire track has been there a while already, no idea who should be removing it. Pictured while escaping the smoke of last week’s Goyt moorland fire.

The last thing the busy towpath gauntlet into Whaley Bridge needs! Hopefully it is very very temporary, but going to this extent of fencing and experience of collapsing walls elsewhere says it’ll take CRT a long time to find the means.

National Trust will be de-culverting 2km of moorland and installing around 90 leaky dams at Lyme as part of a big River Bollin Riverlands project spanning across several properties to Dunham Massey. This looks great. Maybe ties in with the Greater Bollin Trail proposals to improve access too?

Noticed the Lime Avenue and Calves Croft at Lyme are finally open again, directly behind the gardens. Seemed to be closed for ages recently or I was just unlucky. Highly recommend breaking a bike ride to see more of this stunning, peaceful landscape on foot. Use those bike stands!

The Peak District is burning. Dialling 999 as the climate emergency happens today in the Goyt Valley and in the smoky sky perhaps above you right now. www.peaksandpuddles.com/blog/2025/04...

At last, High Peakers can cycle to swim! New Mills Leisure Centre has replaced its old and useless wall-mounted front wheel racks with four new standard Sheffield stands. A basic ask but a good win to finally be heard on this thanks to the new management! www.peaksandpuddles.com/blog/2025/04...

"What is going onn?!" Another win! Whaley Bridge Incline is the latest to win big against barriers, confining some awful examples to the bin on a useful route out into the Peak District.

Cheshire’s beloved Old Brickworks climb into the Peak is probably best avoided for the foreseeable future if you value joy in your cycling.