Peak District Return: Solomon’s Temple, Experiment 66 & Suspiciously Perfect Timing

bootsandbanter
41 minutes ago
3 min read

From Honesty Box to Secret Lab

Date: 21 February 2026

📍Route: Grin Low carpark → Grin Low (Solomon's Tower) → Thirkelow Rocks → Oliver Hill → Leap Edge → Grin Low carpark

📏Distance: 17.7 km

⬆️Ascent: 671 m

⌛Time: 5 h

Weather: 8°C, feels like 2

Mood: Independent and unapologetically spontaneous

The Long-Awaited Return

It somehow has been almost a month since my last Peak District hike.

Today I made up for it.

I set off fully prepared for rain, overtrousers on, gaiters on, braced for Peak District unpredictability. Five hours later I got into the car and that was the exact moment it started pouring. 🌧 Not a drop before. The timing was almost impressive. A rare Peak District courtesy.

Solomon’s Temple Surprise

The car park at Grin Low runs on an honesty box system and asks for £2 for the whole day. £2. I actually paused and double checked I had read it correctly.

In a world of parking machines demanding small fortunes for a few hours, this felt almost nostalgic. No barriers. No ticket drama. Just trust.

I was more than happy to pay it.💰

The route began with Grin Low, and I hadn’t expected to see a tower rising ahead of me. Solomon’s Temple crowns the hill beautifully above Buxton. I climbed it and stood at the top taking in the views. For something marking an Ethel, it might be one of the prettiest landmarks going.

After that I headed towards Oliver Hill. It looked far on the map, but I wanted a long day. Somewhere along the path I glanced left and spotted a hill that looked too interesting to ignore. That was it. Path abandoned. Up I went.

That detour turned out to be Thirkelow Rocks. Not an Ethel, but a brilliant viewpoint. From the top I could see Hollins Hill and Chrome Hill, the Dragon’s Back. Absolutely worth the diversion. If it was up to me I would make this an ethel, or some sort of hill worth visiting.👌🏻

Fence Diplomacy

Eventually I continued on to Oliver Hill. Reaching the exact summit point marked on the Ethel app required a slightly unconventional approach. Let’s just say there was a bent wire fence involved, and a careful duck to avoid barbed wire snagging my jacket. Clearly, I was not the first person to have that idea.🫢

Sometimes I don’t understand why so many fences guard hilltops. We hill baggers just want to stand on the top, that’s all. Summit satisfaction.

The Beauty of Solo Decisions

I took a completely different route back to the car, unplanned and decided in the moment. I went up Leap Edge. That is the beauty of solo hiking. I change direction when I want. I follow curiosity. No negotiations. No route debates. I take detours because a hill “looks interesting.”🫡

Experiment 66

Then came the unexpected chapter.

About 4 km from the car park, I emerged from woodland into an area covered in warning signs. “Dangerous area.”⚠️ Fences everywhere. Multiple signs, as if one would not be dramatic enough. Yet right there was a public footpath threading straight through it.

And then I saw it. A small building with a large red “66” and a sign reading: “Experiment in progress – CLEAR.”

I hadn’t seen a single person since Grin Low. Suddenly I was alone among scattered buildings, warning signs, and something that sounded like it belonged in a science lab.

Naturally, my imagination switched on immediately. Portal 66, where trig points are powered up at night (because on this walk I missed the trigs)..once the hikers leave. Only visible to those who know.😉

Was it something entirely practical and harmless? Probably. Did it feel like I had wandered into a classified side quest? Absolutely.

I walked through slowly, casually pretending I was not mentally preparing for alarms to start.

Three hills. One tower. One spontaneous diversion. One suspicious experimental facility. Perfectly timed rain.

Peak District, never boring.💚⛰️