Combs Moss is an outlier of the higher moors of the Daark Peak. It sits between Buxton and Chapel-en-le-Frith, mainly overlooking the latter. Looking upwards from Chapel, a long escarpment dominates the skyline, marked by two protruding side ridges radiating from its eastern edge. The further of the two, between Combs and Short Edges, is the site of a pre-historic fortress. Using the steep drop on its northern side a double defensive series of ditches at its back, made it an almost impregnable outpost. Using the steep slope of the escarpment, enemy attackers coming from the north would be seen long before they reached the difficult slope rising beneath the fort. With rough moorland slowing attackers from the south and east, whoever held the fortress would have plenty of time to prepare themselves from anyone wanting to use surprise in their favour. Combs is an anglicised version of the Welsh word ‘cwm’, meaning a mountain hollow. This hollow became an ideal place to build a reservoir supplying water for the Peak Forest Canal, the northern arm of a canal network linking Trent and Derwent Valley waterways to the North West by way of a railway across the dry limestone countryside of the White Peak. Peak Forest Canal runs west from Whaley Bridge joining the north western network at Marple where it links the industrial Midlands with Lancashire. I have a special interest in this walk around the upper reaches of the Combs Valley. During my first camp with a scout troop, we pitched our tents in a farmer’s field just outside Combs village. One of our walks followed a rough path up on to the escarpment, the route following one of the side streams. The sight of what seemed endless miles of rough moorland stretching south when...
