Michelcombe

Michelcombe is a hamlet of a few houses in a hollow below Holne Moor, reached by narrow lanes and easily missed. There is no shop and no pub; it is a farming settlement that has quietly got on with things for a very long time, and the granite and thatch look much as they must have done for centuries.

What brings walkers here is the track that climbs from the hamlet onto Holne Moor, an old route up onto the southern high ground that quickly leaves the lanes behind. Above lie the leats, the tin workings and the long open ridges towards Ryder's Hill, and below runs the wooded valley of the Mardle. Michelcombe is small enough that parking is a genuine problem in summer, and it is best treated as a starting point rather than a destination.