Firstly, and most importantly, this is a crash site where 13 American airmen lost their lives in 1948. The crash site wreckage has remained where it was for all that time as you’ll see in my pictures below.
I think I spotted the wreckage/hike randomly on Instagram a while ago so I made a note of it in my Want To Go list and then when I had time for a long roadtrip I put it in the sat nav and headed there.
The drive there is very nice and takes you through the Snakes Pass in the Peak District. It is here on a layby at the side of Snakes Pass where I parked Tiggy, there is parking at the side of the road for lots of cars.
This is the route, following the Pennine Way north from Snakes pass to the trig point at Shelf Moor. The path is mostly stone and very easy to navigate with just the route to the trig point being more of a dirt path. The route back follows the same path in reverse.
Tiggy parked up by the side of Snakes Pass.
At the start of the path by the road is a notice giving you all the information you need.
The walk is at a fairly level path for a mile or so then steadily uphill (nothing steep) through peaty landscape to the top of the hill.
The path is a mix of dirt and paved.
With some lovely views.
After just over a mile you turn left off the Pennine Way and head uphill a little bit towards the top of the hill. As you climb the hill you start to see bits of wreckage. I was amazed that the wreckage was so visible and nothing has been taken in all the decades since it happened.
From the main wreckage site you can see the trig point at the top of the hill so I headed up there to check out the views.
Then, as I look over the view of the peak district and the site of a plane crash, a plane flew over.
It was then just a case of following the same path back down the hill and across the moor to Tiggy.