Win Hill

At 464 m it isn't the tallest thing around, but Win Hill sits in a genuinely useful spot: a narrow ridge wedged between the Upper Derwent and the Hope Valley, with broad views opening out in every direction. You get a big-mountain payoff for a fairly modest amount of walking, which is why it's a hill plenty of walkers come back to rather than tick off once.

The top is a knuckle of gritstone with a trig point on it, open moor and rough grass all around. It's fully exposed, so expect it to be breezy even when the valleys are still, and dress for more wind than you set off in.

Where visibility allows, it's a full 360-degree sweep:

• Ladybower Reservoir below
• The Upper Derwent Valley beyond
• Kinder Scout and the Edale skyline to the west, with Mam Tor across the valley
• Stanage Edge and Derwent Edge on the gritstone side, and the Hope Valley spread out below

How hard this feels depends entirely on your line of approach.

This is open countryside on the tops. Paths are unsurfaced and mud is a real factor after rain, especially in the woods and on the peatier sections near the ridge. Proper boots with grip, not trainers.

• Parkin Clough from Yorkshire Bridge is the brutal one: roughly 300 m of ascent in about 1.2 km, steep and relentless through the woods. Short, sharp and genuinely rewarding, but not a gentle stroll.
• From Hope or Bamford the gradients are much kinder. A traverse over the summit works out at around 5.3 to 5.6 miles, generally reckoned a moderate half-day, with stiles and squeeze stiles along the way.

• Sturdy, waterproof footwear and a windproof layer for the summit
• Water and food carried with you, and treat it as a self-sufficient hill walk
• A map or offline route, as paths branch across the moor and the ridge line isn't always obvious
• Walking poles if you're descending Parkin Clough, which is harder on the knees than the way up

The direct route is steep enough to feel like a slog rather than a walk, the ground gets sloppy for much of the year, and the summit is fully exposed. There's also a well-worn story about the name coming from a battle fought between Win Hill and Lose Hill; it gets repeated a lot, but there's no solid evidence behind it, so treat it as folklore rather than history. Come for the view and the climb.

Approaches from Yorkshire Bridge, Hope and Bamford all work, and both Hope and Bamford sit on the Hope Valley rail line, with local bus stops near the valley routes. Doing it as a linear walk between two stations is the tidiest way to take in the whole ridge without retracing your steps.