The Woolpacks rock formations – Start of Jacob's Ladder Trail loop from Edale

Hiking trails & Routes

The Woolpacks rock formations – Start of Jacob's Ladder Trail loop from Edale

Hard

4.8

(393)

2,726

hikers

The Woolpacks rock formations – Start of Jacob's Ladder Trail loop from Edale

03:59

12.8km

390m

Hiking

Hard hike. Good fitness required. Sure-footedness, sturdy shoes and alpine experience required. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: August 22, 2026

Tips

Includes segments that may be dangerous

Parts of this route comprise highly technical, difficult, or hazardous terrain. Specialist equipment and prior experience is required.

After 2.85 km for 252 m

After 3.16 km for 155 m

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

Get Directions

715 m

Edale Village

Highlight • Parking

Edale is a beautiful village set at the base of Kinder Scout. It’s a great start point for walks in the local area, including the classic Mam Tor and the Great Ridge. There’s a large pay and display car park, which has toilets and a cafe, a couple of good pubs and a small shop in the village centre.

Tip by

1.74 km

Grindsbrook Stream

Highlight • Waterfall

Great after heavy rain

Tip by

2.78 km

Grindsbrook Clough

Highlight • Gorge

This is a very scenic way to get up to the plateau! There are lots of waterfalls on the way up. The actual scramble starts out relatively gently but gets steeper and steeper as you progress, requiring you to use your hands in places. The rocks can get slippery at times, especially after heavy rain, so take care. We've done this both ways, coming up and going down, with our then 9 year old, who loved it.

Tip by

5.15 km

The Woolpacks rock formations

Highlight • Viewpoint

The Woolpacks area is great to explore, tricky in bad visibility and the peat bogs can be perilous, Excellent!!

Tip by

5.97 km

Noe Stool

Highlight • Viewpoint

Always beautiful to see which shapes years of erosion on gritstone create.

Tip by

8.09 km

Jacob's Ladder (Peak District National Park)

Highlight • Climb

The steep stone staircase of Jacob’s Ladder brings you to the summit of Kinder Low. This iconic section of the Pennine Way is a delight to hike and rewards you with magnificent views.

Tip by

8.10 km

Start of Jacob's Ladder Trail

Highlight • Trail

The sign was welcome but the challenge ahead was unknown. In favourable weather this is a great path to use but I guess a real challenge in winter.

Tip by

8.11 km

Stone Bridge at Jacob's Ladder, River Noe

Highlight • Bridge

Scenic spot before the last stretch back to Edale. Nice place for a paddle also!

Tip by

12.8 km

End point

Train Station

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

4.22 km

2.51 km

2.22 km

1.38 km

1.31 km

1.20 km

Surfaces

4.24 km

3.41 km

2.56 km

2.42 km

200 m

< 100 m

Elevation

Nothing selected – click and drag below to see the stats for a specific part of the route.

Highest point (600 m)

Lowest point (240 m)

Weather

Wednesday 23 September

16°C

6°C

0 %

Additional weather tips

Max wind speed: 18.0 km/h

to get more detailed weather forecasts along your route

Comments

April 29, 2023,Edale loop via Kinder Scout and Jacobs Ladder

The initial plan for this day was to reattempt Edale Skyline.
However as we decided to camp during this bank holiday weekend we decided to opt for half of Edale Skyline instead on Day1 and then on Day2 to finish it.
Well.. I must say that the plans kept changing constantly.
We started really strong with Day1 here, however halfway …

December 2, 2021,Edale Rocks – Jacob's Ladder Loop from Edale

Beautiful walk on a sunny wind-free day. Bit of snow on the ground and icy in places but amazing views. Have done this loop before...but much easier with Komoot in my pocket to guide me!

April 30, 2023,Tour

@Yll Krasniqi You would be good for this walk, know you love walking.

March 11, 2023,Edale - > Kinder Scout winter walk

A great winter walk in the Peak District - inspired by visitpeakdistrict.com/trails/edale-to-kinder-scout-walk. Its ideal start- and end point is Edale car park (for further info: komoot.com/highlight/5557939). And even if you decide to do this walk during a warmer month, you'll still most certainly enjoy the vistas and/or a little break in one of the cafés along the route ;-)

April 26, 2022,🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Edale - Peak District (UK - Derbyshire)

Very beautiful walk. After an initially easy climb it became strenuous. Following the course of a mountain stream upstream quickly turned into scrambling over large rocks.

The beautiful panoramas are breathtaking. Somewhere we went wrong, because we missed Kinder Scout. So we do this walk again.

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