It lies a couple of miles to the north of Hathersage, and the northern part of the edge forms the border between the High Peak of Derbyshire and Sheffield in South Yorkshire.

A paved packhorse road ran along the top of the edge, and remains of it can be seen, as can remains of the Long Causeway, once thought to be a Roman road[1] which works its way over the edge on its route from Templeborough to Brough-on-Noe, crossing Hallam Moor and passing Stanedge Pole (note the slightly different spelling), an ancient waymarker on the route to Sheffield.

[2] Stanage's naturally weathered Millstone Grit face is now known as a highly popular location for rock climbing in the Peak District.

Set alone a few hundred metres from the last buttress of the main crag, it is a large boulder with distinctive rounded breaks running across it.

[citation needed] In spite of its height, the edge is home to the longest recorded rock route in the United Kingdom; the 5000m Girdle Traverse, completed by Ron Fawcett in 1992 and graded "E5 6b(ish)".