Romans in Derbyshire

If you should wander off the footpath, and who could blame you if you did on this wild part of the Pennine Way - crossing Bleaklow Hill after the morass of KinderScout, you might stumble on the Roman road at Doctor's Gate. The 'road' consists of hundreds of yards of stone flagging, along which Romans must have marched in single file. It is perhaps not as well preserved as the one on Blackstone Edge, overlooking Rochdale, and still a couple of days' walk away for the Pennine Way walkers, but it does come as something of a relief after the squelchy, boggy terrain before and after it.

The Romans must have laid it out to save the tired legs of their legions, and to make the marching quicker - a more likely reason. The authorities charged with looking after this portion of the Pennine Way have done a similar thing from the A57 road - the Snake Pass - to Bleaklow Hill. This part of the Way is now almost completely paved, which, while probably being necessary to protect the delicate environment hereabouts, does nevertheless detract somewhat from the hardships one has to endure to complete the 270 mile walk.

Whether many Roman legions came this arduous way, I leave to the rigours of the historian, b ut one man I met told me that one night, coming off the hills, across Doctor's Gate, the hair on his dog's back suddenly stood on end as the dog froze whimpering as a ghostly legion of Roman soldiers passed them in the mist and the failing light.

Robert L. Fielding