Parking
Start at Penny Pot Café on Station Approach, beside Edale station. Edale pay-and-display car park is opposite the café.
Overview
About Edale Circular Walk
Why go
- A streamside Pennine Way climb and a return through farm fields.
- Starts beside Edale station and the Penny Pot Café.
Heads up
- Some walking follows village lanes.
- Uneven field paths, gates, and grazing livestock need attention.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Peak District map
Full mapElevation244–358 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
5 active Peak District alerts
- ClosureA54 Cat and Fiddle road closureThe A54 Macclesfield Main Road (Cat and Fiddle) is fully closed to all traffic from 27 July through 30 October 2026 during phase 1 improvement works.Official details
- ClosureHooks Carr (Stanage Popular) car park closureHooks Carr (Stanage Popular) car park will be partially or fully closed from 6 October for four weeks.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Peak District Tour Guide
Your drive to Edale Circular Walk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Peak District National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
Edale and Kinder Scout0:00 / 0:37
“Edale is coming up, the small village where the Pennine Way begins beneath Kinder Scout.”
Plays near this trailhead in the Parkwolf Peak District Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Mam Tor and the Great Ridge
- The Bird That Walks Underwater
- Treak Cliff and Blue John Caverns
- Winnats Pass and Speedwell Cavern
- 298 audio storiesacross Peak District’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Red Deer, Red Fox, Eurasian Otter, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 88 trails, 76 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Edale Circular Walk
A low-level village loopEdale Circular Walk is a 3.
Edale Circular Walk is a 3.4-mile loop from Penny Pot Café through the Vale of Edale, beside a stream, and back across farm fields. The mapped route is about 3.7 miles; another listing rounds it to 3.5, so treat distance as approximate. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours. This suits a half-day walk with a modest climb and village access rather than a summit hike.
Stream path and field returnFrom the café, lanes pass the Moorland Centre and Edale Church toward the Old Nags Head.
From the café, lanes pass the Moorland Centre and Edale Church toward the Old Nags Head. Beyond New Fold Farm, the route joins the Pennine Way and climbs gently beside a stream on your right. At the top gate, it leaves for stone-flagged fields, a ruined farm building, then rough tracks and lanes. Two stone bridges and a wooden bridge mark the return through grazing land and past Edale Methodist Chapel. The Pennine Way began in Edale in 1965 as England’s first National Trail; the loop follows a short stretch.
At the startEdale station and Penny Pot Café sit beside the start; pay-and-display parking is opposite.
Edale station and Penny Pot Café sit beside the start; pay-and-display parking is opposite. Expect some village lanes, uneven field paths and gates. Livestock graze along the route, so dogs must stay on a lead. The walk’s appeal is the stream climb and open fields, not a summit viewpoint.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Peak District
248 sightingsRed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
36 sightingsRed FoxMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
15 sightingsEurasian OtterMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
51 sightingsPeregrine FalconMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
47 sightingsEuropean Fallow DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
54 sightingsWestern Roe DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Peak District. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
