Stanedge Pole

About Stanedge Pole

Located on the windswept Hallam Moors above Hathersage, this historic landmark stands as a sentinel over the gritstone plateau of Stanage Edge. The approach via the ancient Long Causeway provides easy footing across peat-hags, leading to a summit that offers expansive, panoramic views across the Hope Valley towards Mam Tor and Win Hill.

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Did You Know?

• •The name refers to the wooden landmark that has stood here since at least 1550, serving as a vital waymarker for travelers crossing the high, often featureless moors between Sheffield and the Hope Valley.
• •The rock base of the pole acts as a historical register, featuring the carved initials of five parish road surveyors—dating from 1550 to 1740—who were responsible for renewing the marker over the centuries.
• •The site marks a triple boundary point where the ancient parishes of Sheffield, Hathersage, and Ecclesfield met, and it is thought by some historians to be the old frontier between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.
• •It is a key point on the Long Causeway, a medieval packhorse route; though often cited as a Roman road connecting the forts at Navio and Templeborough, modern archaeologists remain skeptical of its Roman origins.
• •The current 2016 incarnation of the pole is made from a locally grown larch and sits in a base cast from ductile iron at a Sheffield foundry, replacing a previous version that was removed after the wood became dangerously rotten.
• •The summit provides a clear line of sight over the Derwent Valley to the west, where the dark, bulky profiles of Kinder Scout and Bleaklow dominate the horizon on a clear day.
• •While most summit cairns are built from stone, this is perhaps the only 'peak' in the district where the primary objective is to reach a piece of timber that has been systematically replaced for nearly five hundred years.