Gamekeepers pull stranded drivers off Peak District byway

Gamekeepers in the Peak District have spent recent weeks pulling stranded cars and vans off an unsurfaced moorland byway, after sat-navs began sending traffic around a road closure and up a track most vehicles cannot manage.

The Peak District Moorland Group says its keepers have worked alongside AA and RAC patrols to free vehicles stuck on the Old Macc Road out of the Goyt Valley, the unpaved route some navigation apps offer as an alternative while the A54 Cat and Fiddle road between Macclesfield and Buxton is closed for repairs.

Why are drivers ending up on the Old Macc Road?

The A54 closed for resurfacing and drainage works that the group says will run into late October, with a further 12-week closure planned for spring 2027. With the main road shut, some sat-navs offer the old moorland road to Buxton as the short way round, and drivers follow.

“With the A54 Cat and Fiddle to Buxton Road being shut for lengthy repairs, some drivers are slaves to their sat-navs and risking the Old Macc Road out of the Goyt Valley to Buxton,” a spokesman for the group said. “This alternative road is not suitable for this purpose!”

Keepers first on the scene

Moorland keepers are usually the only people working the hill daily, and the group’s members have the vehicles and local knowledge to reach a car stuck far from the tarmac. Working with breakdown patrols, they have freed a steady procession of saloons and vans from the byway’s ruts and boulders over recent weeks.

It is the sort of quiet public service the moorland community provides year round. Peak District keepers spent stretches of this summer fighting moorland wildfires alongside fire crews, and the same local knowledge that finds a fire on the hill finds a hatchback beached on a boulder. The group says its keepers will carry on helping where they find drivers stuck, though nobody on the moor regards towing tourists as part of the job description.

The Peak District Moorland Group is part of the Regional Moorland Groups network, which exists to show the public the conservation and community work that goes on around England’s grouse moors, from wader recovery to school visits. Rescuing motorists was not in the brochure, but it makes the point rather well.

What happens next?

The A54 remains closed into late October, and the advice is simple: follow the signed diversion, not the sat-nav shortcut. The group’s account of the rescues, published on 27 August, asks drivers to treat the Old Macc Road as what it is, a rough moorland byway, not a through route.