Middle Black Clough Wild Camp

Access to the bottom of the Three Black Cloughs is easy enough. Starting from the carpark just off the A628 Woodhead Pass go over the stile to the left of the bridge and follow the path with the river Etherow on your left. This path soon bears right, away from the river, up through a pleasant picnic area with the stream from the Cloughs now on your left as it flows into the Etherow.

After little more than a quarter of a mile from the bridge things become more challenging. The path runs out with a small weir ahead where the stream bears left. At this point you need to cross the stream and continue the rest of the way with the stream on your right. You are now heading up Middle Black Clough, you will soon pass Near Black Clough and Far Black Clough to the left and right as you head up the steepest and most picturesque of these three ravines.

Good footwear is essential. From this point on you can't walk more than a few steps without having to scramble over or between rocks, as you go beyond the first waterfall the drop to the stream or onto piles of boulders is thirty feet or more in places. Go careful, go slow and be sure of every footstep. Negotiating these hazards makes it all worthwhile as you stop to take in the beauty of the two waterfalls and the views up and down the ravine.

Finding a spot to camp for the night wasn't as simple as I'd anticipated. I wanted to camp by the waters edge but any flat areas were covered with tightly packed heather and blueberry bushes but I eventually spotted a small grassy area with a couple of trees to hang my tarp from, a big flat topped rock to set up my cooking gear on and a pool fed by a mini waterfall to get scrubbed up in. Home sweet home!

The sense of achievement from getting to this spot combined with the isolation and tranquility I felt is like nothing else I can imagine. After a wander around with the camera I just sat for a couple of hours watching the water and for that time nothing else in the world mattered.

Up at dawn after a great nights sleep I was able to strike camp in just a few minutes thanks to the minimal amount of kit involved. The tarp proved to be a good shelter, standing up just fine to an unexpected shower and wind in the night. Progress back down was even more slow and careful than the journey up thanks to the rain making everything a lot more dangerous due to slippery rocks and soft ground. I arrived at the bike wet, dirty and knackered but still had a grin on my face.