Baslow-Chatsworth House-Edensor-Hassop and Bank Wood

25.6.14
Walking with; Nobody

   Over the years I have acquired a fair number of different walking books describing routes for many different parts of the country. In recent times I have mostly devised my own routes and derived great pleasure from it, but once in a while I find myself thinking "Why bother inventing the wheel" and dig one of the dusty guide books out form the shelf on which they languish. The one I laid hands on this week was by Mark Reid, author of "The Inn Way" series who hit on the genius idea of producing books combining excellent walks with excellent pubs....sounds like a decent job to me! After a perusal of his "Walking weekends Peak District" I decided that I'd head over to Baslow and do his 10.5 miler taking in the Chatsworth estate and some of the Peak District's most picturesque villages.
   Leaving the village green at Nether End I crossed Bar Brook and followed a resplendent male Pheasant along the path towards the Chatsworth estate. The estate is a fine example of an English stately home, vast swathes of grassland populated by magnificent mature trees and grazing herds. The landscaping was done by "Capability" Brown and the house itself was built in the late 17th Century and is still the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire today. Passing Queen Mary's bower, one of the oldest buildings on the estate named after Mary, Queen of Scots who was imprisoned at Chatsworth I crossed the Derwent and headed towards the hamlet of Edensor. If an American tourist were to describe a picture perfect English village they'd be hard pressed to describe something other than Edensor. It's a collection of beautiful stone built cottages clustered around a parish church and village green. The gardens are immaculate, vegetables and flowers adding colour to the picture and in the June sunshine it was the quintessence of Englishness. I reluctantly climbed out of the village passing a couple of dry stone wallers and dropped down Handley Lane towards Pilsley.
   A little further on I came to Hassop and the 17th century pub "The Eyre Arms" http://www.eyrearms.com/ where a pint of "Palerider" in front of the hanging baskets seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. The path leading through Bank Woods South and North was very overgrown but I picked my way through the grass led by Red Admirals and Wrens and enjoying views of Longstone Edge before dropping down to Calver. Negotiating a herd of slightly frisky cattle I made it back to the banks of the Derwent and from there cut through St Mary's Wood before dropping through Bubnell and emerging back by the old bridge in Baslow and returning along the road from there. This was a beautiful route through the kind of English countryside long dreamed off by visitors to the UK. Beautiful villages, wild flower meadows, dry stone wallers and birds and butterflies, a decent pub and the sun even managed to shine! Good work Mark Reid.

To view the full album please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.916405638375391.1073741869.597048676977757&type=3&uploaded=17 
  

Crowden

Walking with; Nobody
28.01.13

When I think of the Dark Peak, I tend to think about the "Big three", Kinder, Bleaklow and Crowden/Black Hill, but I do seem to neglect the latter. It doesn't have the mystery of Bleaklow with it's low hanging fog and aircraft wrecks (although it does have a few up there) or the history of Kinder and the tresspass, but it does have the Great and Little Brooks, Laddow Rocks (where the original members of The Rucksack club climbed and put in place the foundations of the modern Mountain rescue service) and miles of barren moorland. I wanted a bit more navigation work and figured miles of barren moorland met that criteria so away I went, passing the YHA before crossing Crowden Brook and making my way up to The Pennine Way. There were Pheasant and Grouse about and I heard Ravens at least twice on my walk. I ascended slowly until I reached Oakenclough Brook tumbling down off Rakes Moss,then instead of re-treading the next section of the Way, I decided to follow a narrow track contouring along the valley and below Laddow Rocks before emerging back onto the Way opposite the magnificent rock formations known as Castles.
The path crisscrossed the brook before the distinctive paving slabs showed me the way towards the distant Black Hill. I'm always struck at how vast the expanse of moorland is up there, miles of nothingness giving the lone walker the occasional chill down the spine especially when the mist starts to drift in.......Visibility remianed pretty good though so I struck off in an easterly direction, locating the pond at Sliddens Moss before continuing on the rough, broken up, tussocky ground in the direction of the ever visible Holme Moss Transmitting Station. The groughs were still full of snow and I set off a Mountain Hare in it's beautiful white coat, he made my progress across the moor look decidedly clumsy and he bounced and bounded away from me. I eventually made my way up on to Tooleyshaw Moss and searched for the remains of the original route that the Pennine Way took. The wind had gotten up by this point and the dark clouds that had hovered over Bleaklow began to scud in my general direction incentivising me to pick up my pace as I slip slid through the peaty bogs and mossy marshes from White Low and across Westend Moss. The squall when it hit did so with the kind of malevolence a disgruntled Nordic God might have used to show his power over mere humans and I was soaked before I'd even got my waterproofs out of my rucksack......luckily it was over as quickly as it started and I wandered the remaining path back to the hamlet of Crowden (the most Northerly settlement in Derbyshire) without further downpour.

To visit the full photo album for this walk please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=oa.332787893506789&type=1

Fernilee Reservoir

22.01.13
Walking with; Nobody

Snow seems to divide the nation, one half turning into big kids and the other into whingers and moaners, perhaps the divide is based on whether you have to go to work in it, because spending a day wandering through the Peak District in the snow is, quite frankly, one of the best things I can think of doing! It's a while since I have found a completely new walk in the Peaks so I pulled my well thumbed "Pub Walks in the Peak District"  out of the bookcase and on John Morrison's advice decided to try a variant on his stroll around Fernilee.
Fernilee is a hamlet, a mile or so South of Whalley Bridge and consists of "The Shady Oak" pub, a few farms and not a lot more. However a short stroll down the Goyt Valley there are the twin reservoirs of Fernilee and Errwood built in 1938 by the Stockport Water Corporation. I followed the footpath through Folds Lane Farm and down the pristine slopes to the River Goyt itself which I crossed before following a path that seemed better suited to cross country skiing than walking to the head of the Fernilee Reservoir.  Walking with the crunch of snow under boot, the sky blue and cloudless and a chill wind reddening your cheeks is hard to beat and my meander was further cheered by a friendly Robin accompanying me en route......no bird looks better against a backdrop of snow and holly. The next section took me through a fir plantation giving the walk a distinctly Scandanavian flavour before a path dropped down to the shore and I followed this to the dam separating the two reservoirs. It was being utilised by some kamikaze sledders who I watched in awe before lunching on top of the dam and spending ten minutes chatting to a gent who'd come down from the Cat and Fiddle.
I circumvented Bunsal Cob before taking the Midshires Way and heading through some seriously deep, drifted snow to the roadside viewpoint of Long Hill with views back towards the reservoir and across to Ladbitch Wood and Taxal Moor. The slog across the thigh deep drifts made me feel like Titus Oates, except with a little less immediate peril. Crossing the access land North of the A5004 I headed through more deep snow up to the Old Road which led me past the very lonely and remote farm at Wythen Lache and back through a true Winter wonderland to the lane down to the pub which sadly had just closed thus depriving me of a well needed pint and opportunity to thaw out in front of a fire......ah well, there's always next time!
All this snow has seriously whetted my appetite for our ski trip, one month from today, so fingers crossed it continues in this vein!

To view the full album, please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=oa.325422667576645&type=1

Win Hill before work

Walking with; Nobody
22.09.12

Starting work at 4pm on a Saturday when your good lady is away taking in the sea air of Whitby and the blue skies and crisp air make for perfect rugby playing conditions is not a prospect to gladden the heart. It does, however, provide ample time for a pre-shift walk and on a perfect Autumnal Saturday it would have been criminally neglectful not to stretch my legs a little. Days like today are the ones you bank to keep you going on rain lashed, misty tramps up Black Hill in November, days that inspire and remind you just why it is that we get out there in the first place.
Win Hill has long been a favourite haunt of mine, back in my carless days when the Hope Valley rail line was my best way of accessing the Peak District, it was the first hill I climbed in this area. Like Mam Tor it provides real "bang for your buck", a short, if very steep, climb is rewarded with 360 degree views of a truly spectacular nature from the 462 metre summit. To the North is Ladybower Reservoir whilst the ridge running North West links it to Kinder Scout. The ridge is crossed by the old Roman road near the Hope Cross marker post.Legend has it that the name derives from a battle in 626 when a force of numerically inferior Northumbrians defeated the forces of Wessex and Mercia, though there is little evidence to substantiate this and it is probably best regarded as myth.
Leaving the Thirteenth century church of St Peter's I headed off down the Edale Road before ducking under the railway line and starting the climb to Twitchell's Farm. The slope rises steeply and by the time I passed the well situated holiday cottages I had fine views along the Great Ridge to the paragliders on Mam Tor and back to Winnat's Pass (newly famous from the Olympics!) The heather had nearly gone, but there were still patches of vivid purple as I climbed up to the "pimple", the distinctive summit of Win Hill which was crowded with bikers and hikers. The views were superb in all directions and a 30 second hop from the Trig Point provided a little more tranquility.
Rested and refreshed by the views over the reservoir I headed back along the ridge towards Lose Hill. The sun was shining, sky was blue and if I hadn't had to head off to work it would have been a beautiful day to carry on over Lose Hill and onto Mam Tor, still it wasn't to be and I picked one of the paths leading back down to Hope for a slice of Yorkshire Curd tart and a coffee at The Courtyard cafe before clocking in for the evening!