500 metres south of Horsehill Tor is a well built cairn, small bee-hive-shaped, measuring approximately 2 metres high. It contains a plaque in its south-west-facing side which bears the following inscription –
EDALE KINDER RUSHUP EDGE
Erected for the National Trust
In memory of John Charles Gilligan by his family
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help
Psalm 121
The cairn is a waymarker with arrows pointing walkers toward the three landmarks Gilligan loved most: Edale, Kinder, and Rushup Edge.
The National Trust doesn’t usually allow anyone to place a memorial on their land.
However, just five years earlier in 1945, the National Trust were given ‘Wards Piece’ by GHB Ward, founder of the Sheffield Clarion Ramblers. Wards Piece is the summit of Lose Hill. A plaque was placed and inscribed:-
‘Lose Hill 1563 ft, this summit and 54.5 acres of land around it, Ward’s piece, was purchased by the Sheffield and District Federation of the Ramblers Association in appreciation of the life work of George Herbert Bridges Ward FRGS’.
The cairn erected in 1950 near Horsehill Tor is a private family memorial for John Charles Gilligan, who lived from 1879 to 1962. While he was not a public figure,nor a famous explorer or access campaigner, the cairn was erected with the permission of The National Trust because of his deep personal connection to the Peak District landscape.
I think it is fitting that these two memorial sites are in view of each other across the Edale Valley
John Charles Gilligan was locally born in 1879, and lived most of his life near here. He was an iron moulder by trade. He died in 1962.
He lived through an era when countryside walking was not a common activity, and gamekeepers did not encourage access to shooting moorlands. Gilligan was a passionate hillwalker who spent decades exploring the moors around Edale, Kinder, and Rushup Edge. He was not part of the mass movement who campaigned to gain access to wild places. He lived quietly through the period leading to the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act..
In 1951, the Peak District was the first area to be designated as a national park. By the end of the decade the Lake District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, Pembrokeshire Coast, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Exmoor, Northumberland and Brecon Beacons had all been designated as national parks. Gilligan lived through this decade of change in his final years.
The cairn was not built to commemorate a single heroic act, but rather as a tribute to Gilligans lifetime of love for the hills. His family worked with the National Trust to place the memorial on Colborne Moor.
The inscription on his memorial cairn includes a verse from Psalm 121: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help,” reflecting the spiritual peace he found in the Peak District.
Writings and photograph courtesy of Mike Browell.