Blackley Hey (aka Potato Alley) is a bridleway near Alport & the Snake Pass in the Peak District, UK. This page is intended to provide information for mountain biking on the track.

Rating: Technical / Speed / Fun: | |
Height Descent / Distance: 150m / 2.03km

Surface: Dirt on the east half, many loose gritstone rocks and some bedrock on the west half.

Location: SK 155 885 - Monkeyspoon OS Tracks Map - Google Aerial Map
It starts at the cross roads junction of Hope Cross and heads west to Alport and Rowlee Bridge, it mainly follows the contours around Blackley Clough then heads down the side of the bank of Blackley Hey.

Blackley Hey is also known as Potato Alley, as it has many rounded rocks the size of potatoes.
The first section from Hope Cross is slightly up-hill with a wide three line track or a narrow high line on the bank next to the wall. After the first gate it goes slightly down-hill to the right angled corner with the stream crossing and the second gate, this section collects water and is often muddy. Following the second gate track, the goes up-hill, as it curves left, to the summit at the 365m mark.
From the summit the descent starts, it begins gently with small rocks appearing, but as the gradient increases so do the rocks. Before long the whole track is covered in rocks, the size of which gradually increases; typically to about the size of a fist. As you reach the bends and the track gets a little steeper there are some pointy exposed bedrock sections in the middle of the track, which makes a welcome change from the loose round rocks. The track follows the curves in the hillside creating several steeper left curves followed by flat right curves. The bottoms of these steeper section have the loosest rocks – it’s really just a case of following where your front wheel chooses to go. The 200m final straight comes after a cutting through a hillock and is quite fast with fewer loose rocks and more embedded rock.
The track exits onto a tarmac drive, the bridleway straight on (left) takes you to a dead end joining the A57 Snake Pass road, the bridleway turning back on yourself (right) takes you across the A57 and up the other side of the valley, past Rowlee Farm, to the top of HaggTor.

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