Giddy Edge ‘The Scariest Footpath In England’ the ‘Suicide Cave’ and Winnats Pass

“Mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

– Ed Viesturs

As a few people probably also did, I read about this walk from an online newspaper video. Being as this looked like it had been taken from a drone, and probably from the perspective it looked pretty sketchy as a family made their way across this dangerous foot path. Click the link below for their video..complete with overly dramatic music!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nail-biting-footage-shows-family-16170510

Giddy Edge itself is a very narrow path just below the top of a limestone cliff, and three hundred feet above the town of Matlock Bath. It’s only part of a short walk at 2.4 miles but if you don’t like heights this walk provides some good views. And if you don’t fancy it you don’t actually have to walk giddy edge, it’s just an option.

Anyway not walking the scary part is not an option for me, I want to see how scary it actually is. Always wanting to get my adrenaline up (as implied by the name of the blog) I’d been waiting for ages to go out and give this a go since reading about it and seeing that Daily Mirror video. So as usual when I’m about to do something stupid, I gave a few friends a ring to find out if they also, fancied putting themselves at risk of falling off a bloody huge cliff. Unsurprisingly, and as usual Andy is pretty much the only one up for this. But he’s never really had a problem with heights, even when I’ve been the one holding the rope at the climbing wall!

The weather is pretty awesome when we get to Matlock Bath and the walk up is actually quite pleasant. What a great day to peer off the edge of a cliff! There’s some great views on the way up to the path down to Matlock Bath too. Of course if you are in a rush there’s an obvious quick route back down!

Actually arriving at the point where ‘Giddy Edge’ starts I’m a bit nervous passing onto the narrow path. And I’ll admit it does get the adrenaline going, but the addition of a handrail makes it a fair bit less scary. The cliff is made out of limestone so there plenty to grip onto. The part where you turn the corner is probably the sketchiest and then….there’s a nice relaxing bench to sit on to take in the pretty awesome view off the cliff which pretty much destroys the impact of the exposure. A bit like if you were doing an intense mountain scramble and suddenly you came across a nice relaxing sofa. Same vibe.

I’m taking pictures watching Andy standing close to the edge and hoping he doesn’t trip over a pebble or a shoelace as I don’t fancy having to post him home in a carrier bag. All in all whole experience doesn’t last very long so if you are not much of a hiker this will probably suit you well. I wouldn’t suggest it if you are clumsy and trip a lot, or if you have a serious issue with heights. For us it’s not really a long enough jaunt so we decide to head over to the Castleton area to do a bit of cave recon for future adventures. Myself and Andy have already done a bit of caving (see our trip to Goats Church Cavern here) and myself and Richard have been learning to abseil, buying up caving gear and talking to a local caving club.

We go for a short hike and end up walking the roadside path of Winnats pass and instantly come across Horseshoe Cave (also known as suicide cave) and decide to go check it out inside. We don’t go too far in as the chains stretched across part of the cave are probably a warning to not go too far…

It’s a bit frustrating we don’t have more gear with us like helmets and knee pads so at this point it’s definitely a wise idea to not go straight into the cave. For a start we don’t know it very well and without the full rack of gear and a plan we don’t want the place to live up to it’s nickname. After the Covid restrictions are lifted me there will be plenty of time to put ourselves at calculated risk with people who know what they are doing. Not to mention that judging by the bolts part way down I’m guessing it’s going to take some single rope technique….the ropes at home along with all my other caving gear.

On the bright side we just found somewhere new to explore and in a few months and a few cave trips with the club (if restrictions allow) we can camp nearby and then come and have a proper go. I’ve spent enough of my time working in outdoor retail advising people not to attempt dangerous things without the proper training and gear,so better practice what I preach. We will definitely be back sometime next year to tackle this one.

After our very short exploration of the cave we check out another briefly which has a crawl in opening. Deciding after that to jack in the caving, out we crawl into the sunlight and getting some funny looks from hikers as we magically appear from the floor like pair of muddy goblins. And it’s straight up the side of the very picturesque Winnats pass, which is easily one of the most photographed places in the Peak District. This valley is pretty steep sided, being formed by the collapse of a large underground system of caves. Being as there’s plenty of caves round here I’m hoping it’s not long until we all return to tackle a few of them. For now though its time to call it a day and head to the pub.

Have you walked Giddy Edge? How did you find it? Let us know in the comments below!