The Grade 1 Scrambler

A beginner-friendly Grade 1 scramble above Dovestone Reservoir in the Peak District. This guide covers the route, key features, and how the difficulty builds as you climb.

Route in: park at Dove Stone Reservoir Car Park.  Walk past the south side of the reservoir and then up Chew Road towards Chew Reservoir until you reach roughly OS ref SE 02791 01887 – then look for a vague path running down to Chew Brook heading up the brook.  If you can’t find that, take the slightly-clearer path towards the footbridge and then head up the brook.

Start point: make your way up the south side of Chew Brook to the entrance to Wilderness Gully West at SE 02793 01725

Notes: there are several Wilderness Gullies; all of the others are easier grade 1 scrambles except Wilderness Gully East which is grade 2

Grading: a nice increase from sub-grade 1 to normal grade 1 to top of grade 1 as you climb up

End point: where you meet the path along the tops at SE 02776 01536, having ascended around 100 metres

Route out: a number of options: my preference is to downclimb beside the shallow gully that lies between Wilderness Gully West and Bower Clough from SE 02712 01546 BUT not in bird-nesting season (takes about 15 minutes back to Chew Road and note this is the route just past the outcrop at the top not, as stated in the video, Bower Clough); go a bit further west and downclimb alongside or in Bower Clough from SE 02531 01567; downclimb Wilderness Gully West itself; walk east along the top path until just before Chew Reservoir when you can cut down and across Chew Brook to Chew Road and walk back down.  Finally, you can go further west along the top path and take the rough route down Chew Green that then follows along the west bank of Chew Brook back to the car park

Map link: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/wilderness-gully-west-8bf6e6d

Time: about an hour from CP to start point; around 20 mins to scramble up the gully; 45-60 mins to walk back depending on your route out

Combine with: Charnel Clough, Chew Brook, other Wilderness Gullies

Gear: unless it’s been raining hard, this is a dry scramble though you may get wet feet on the walk in beside Chew Brook – try staying on the north bank until opposite the gully

Verdict: a great introductory grade 1 scramble that lets you try a number of basic scrambling techniques and gets incrementally harder to help match your (hopefully!) increasing confidence

Category: Introductory scramble

Score: 6.5/10 for ordinary scrambling; 8/10 for a beginner scrambler

Video guide:

Map:

Map image/data from OpenStreetMap via AllTrails