Length of route: 16 km (10 miles).
Starting Point; turning area at the eastern end of Shepley Street in Old Glossop, SK045948.
Map required Outdoor Leisure 1 The Peak District (Dark Peak Area).
Details of the aircraft wrecks obtained from "Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks" by Ron Collier.

Start out up the wide farm track with the beck on your right hand side, passing the bunkhouse on your left. In just under half a mile go through a kissing gate on the left and ascend the grassy track rising steeply up the moor. More gates lead straight onto the open moor. Follow the edge of the steep escarpment until you come to a dilapidated fence, which you follow upstream with the rocky bed of Yellowslacks Brook rising steadily up on your right. You pass rocky outcrops, the main one being Dog Rock and then in Dowstone Clough you can cross the bed of the stream on some flat slabs at NGR SK083956. Opposite a clear track heads south east onto the moor but ignore this. The key is to contour around to the right heading south and staying at the 540 to 550 metre level. Pass the head of Wigan Clough on your right and go out to the end of James’s Thorn. Just below the summit cairn you will come across the first wreckage and a low stone memorial set into the hillside at NGR SK079948.

This was a Lancaster KB993.
In the early evening of 18th May 1945, Lancaster EQ-U with Flying Officer Anthony Arthur Clifford at the controls took off from Linton-on-Ouse. The crew consisted of Bomb Aimer, Flying Officer David (Scratch) Fehrman; Wireless Operator, Warrant Officer Michael Cecil (Blood and Guts) Cameron; Air Gunner, Flight Sergeant Clarence (Hairless Joe) Halvorson; Air Gunner, Flight Sergeant Leslie Claude (Rabbit) Hellerson and Flight Engineer, Pilot Officer Kenneth (Gassless) McIver. It appears that the crew, bored with flying round practising landings and take-offs, with no fixed exercise, had decided to go for a circular tour. Darkness must have caught them out of sight of base and lost over the Derbyshire hills, the bomber struck the top of James's Thorn hill and burst into a ball of flame. All the crew of six perished in the crash, although the rear gunner lived for a short while.

Leave the wreck site in a southerly direction descending on a steep grassy path until you reach a fence which you follow to the left (East) for a 100 yards, this fence leads directly to the next wreck at NGR SK081947.

This was a C-47 Skytrain.
The C-47 took of on July 24th 1945 on a routine supply trip from Leicester East to Renfrew in Scotland. The pilot, First Lieutenant George L. Johnson, had been warned of bad weather along the flight path up central England. So he decided to take the more direct route and risk the high ground. The rest of the five man crew consisted of co-pilot, First Lieutenant Earl W. Burns; navigator, First Lieutenant Beverly W. Izlar; Crew Chief, Sergeant Theodore R. McCrocklin and the radio operator, Sergeant Francis M. Maloney. There were two passengers, Corporal Grover R. Alexander, USAAF and RAF Leading Aircraftsman J. D. Main. The crash was found two days later at 5 o'clock in the afternoon when Sergeant Pridgeon, an RAF cypher clerk, and his girl friend came upon the wreckage of a Skytrain whilst out walking. He knew of the Lancaster bomber that had crashed at some point in that area just nine weeks earlier so at first he thought that this was what he had come across but when he found the dead bodies of the crew he realized that he had come across a new crash scene. It appears that the Skytrain hit the high ground, when the hills were shrouded in low cloud as they so often are.

To continue the walk, follow a grassy path alongside the fence in a Easterly direction towards the higher ground of Lower Shelf Stones. Shortly though, branch away from the fence and cross rough ground to climb up to the rocks and beyond to the trig point on Higher Shelf Stones. At the trig point set your compass to 60 degrees (ENE) and keep walking for about 250 yards, when you will come over a low hill and find the next wreck scattered about the clough before you at NGR SK091949.

This was a Superfortress B 29.
It was only a twenty five minute trip for a B-29 from Scampton in Lincolnshire to Burtonwood USAF base near Warrington, when the pilot Captain Landon P. Tanner took off on the morning of 3rd November 1948, at around 10.15. His crew for the trip consisting of co-pilot, Captain Harry Stroud; engineer, Technical Sergeant Ralph Fields; navigator, Sergeant Charles Wilbanks; radio operator, Staff Sergeant Gene A. Gartner; radar operator, David D. Moore; camera crew, Technical Segeant Saul R. Banks, Sergeant Donald R. Abrogast, Sergeant Robert I. Doyle and Private First Class William M. Burrows. Two other crew members were Corporal M. Franssen and Corporal George Ingram. Acting as photographic advisor was Captain Howard Keel of the 4201st.

When Over Exposed failed to arrive at Burtonwood an air search was initiated and during that early wintery afternoon blazing wreckage was spotted high on the moors near Higher Shelf Stones. By chance members of the Harpur Hill RAF Mountain Rescue Unit were just finishing an exercise two and a half miles away, so they quickly made their way to the scene of the crash. Several bodies lay scattered around the blazing twisted metal, it was obvious that there was nothing that they could do for them. How to get the bodies off the moor was the next problem and because of the rough terrain it was suggested that rather than carry the stretchers three miles across the moors to the Snake Pass Road, they would call in helicopters. However, the rescue men decided to attempt the job themselves. Six men to a stretcher they set off down the moorland with others taking turns to carry the grim loads. The bodies were taken on to Burtonwood Air Force Base, which at that period served as a servicing depot for American aircraft engaged in the Berlin airlift. Sadly, the crew of 13 men had all perished.

From the wreck site head Northwards for 500 yards on some faint paths across the moor to the Hern Stones which are a solitary group of rocks rising out of the peat haggs. Be careful not to overshoot and go ¾ mile to the Wain Stones and Bleaklow Head which are most prominent on the skyline. At the Hern Stones turn right (South East) down the stream bed, and within 200 yards you will reach the part paved Pennine Way which you follow south easterly towards Snake Pass. At the “Old Woman” crossroads turn right onto the Doctor's Gate Roman Road. Your route now descends this impressive valley for four miles to arrive back at your starting point in Old Glossop.

Remember, do not disturb or take anything away from these wrecks. Leave as you find.