Last year we holidayed in Ingleton, Yorkshire during a particularly cold and wet spell and made the most of the resulting huge volume of running water by visiting many of the waterfalls. Today we thought that it was time to take a look at our local waterfall walk at Lumsdale near Matlock. It’s a lovely walk and not too long at under 3 miles and is full of history. It’s one of the local early industrial sites with the remains of a series of water powered mills. It is a protected Scheduled Monument owned and preserved by the Arkwright Society. Click here for more information on Lumsdale valley and the Arkwright Society.

It has been dismal and wet of late, but this morning it was all set with sunshine and frost. We got off early to make the most of the weather and to miss the crowds as it can get quite busy. We parked just off the A632 at Highfields school and walked down the lane towards the first pond.

During the worst spell of covid lockdown the waterfall walk was closed. It’s now fully open but you need to walk past the first locked gate after the pond to access the big waterfall.

There are a several steps down past the waterfall and onto the lane, but there are handrails and the steps are quite level.

We were too early for the brewery and cafe. It looks tempting enough to walk this way again!

Continue down the lane until you reach a footpath on the left. We weren’t sure of which way to go so went the wrong way, but the route we marked on the map is the way we should have gone. We retraced our steps and followed the footpath which takes you to Tansley.

We also missed the path through the woods and instead followed the Old Coach Road into Tansley. There are some lovely houses along there, but next time we will take the path through the woods which then pops up into lower Tansley. Then you take a left out of Tansley and follow a lane that turns into a track, up and up until the views open out across the Lumsdale valley and you can see Riber castle above Matlock.