Higger Tor and Carl Wark

12.3.13
Walking with; Nobody

The skies were blue and the air crisp and I decided that such a day was not to be wasted in Manchester so, amidst the flurries of snow, headed off to do this walk which had been on my list for the past couple of weeks. As I headed towards Sheffield the skies grew darker and the snow a little more insistent, but there were plenty of hardy souls out and about and whilst this is not, in any sense, a wilderness walk there was still enough weather and heather to make it feel pretty wild at times.
  I parked near "The Grouse Inn", above Froggatt village, when I arrived it wasn't open and by the time I'd returned it had shut......have to learn to time my walks better........From there I headed up to White Edge and out onto the exposed moorland where the wind whipped plenty of snow into my face and forced me into digging out the hat and gloves. I carried on entering the grounds of the National Trust owned Longshaw Estate. The Estate was once owned by the Duke of Rutland who used it for shooting parties, however it was purchased from the Duke by public subscription in 1927 and presented to the Trust the following year. Eschewing the undoubted delights of the NT tearoom I carried on following the high path above the quarries onto Burbage Moor. The views from the edge took in my eventual objectives of Higger Tor and Carl Wark as well as the forestry plantation planted in the shape of Great Britain and which Sheffield Council are now talking of removing. The edge is normally a very popular spot for climbers but there was nobody brave, or foolhardy, enough to risk it today and I made it to Upper Burbage Bridge (for lunch) without meeting another soul.
  Higger Tor itself, is a classic Dark Peak gritstone hill and whilst only attaining a height of 434m affirds some excellent views to Stannage Edge and Mam Tor and the Hope Valley. I descended and headed over to Carl Wark, a site I'd been meaning to visit for a long time on account of the (what are thought to be) Iron Age fortress remains situated atop it. Much mystery still remains as to the actual useage of the area and no remains of settlement have been found but the remaining wall is none-the-less a very impressive piece of work and has weathered over 3000 years of inclement Peak District weather admirably. The path back to the estate was boggy underfoot and I was glad to get off it and head down to Padley Gorge, a beautiful wooded valley just waiting for Spring to have sprung! The path follows the stream as it cuts it's way towards Grindleford, but what goes down must come up meaning that after bypassing the village, it was a short, sharp shock that led me puffing and panting back towards "The Grouse", just too late to console myself with a well earned pint!

To view the full album, please click on the link below;
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=oa.353890711396507&type=1

Brunt's Barn-Big Moor-White Edge-Tumbling Hill-Brunt's Barn

15.4.12

Walking with; David from the Peak District Rangers

The last of my pre-visits with the Rangers took me out towards Sheffield to the village of Grindleford. The Rangers are based at Brunt's Barn named after Harry Brunt, a Deputy National Parks Officer. The office sits just down a track from Grindleford station and the very popular cafe (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/may/12/railway-station-cafes-uk-food) which was already thronged with bikers when I arrived. Grindleford was an important point on the packhorse routes which carried salt between the Cheshire salt mines and Sheffield and other Northern cities. In 1588 two Catholic priests were discovered hiding in the village and were executed in Derby, the two, Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlum, became known as the Padley martyrs and a chapel in their memory sits next to the office.

We set off climbing steeply from the valley floor and following a stream up through Oak's Wood onto open moorland with fantastic views towards some of the many gritstone edges in the area. We continued onto White Edge Moor where there was plenty of evidence of the old packhorse routes that crisscross the tops round here. The most well known example is the Lady's Cross which stands on the moor and details the ancient routes taken to Sheffield. Our route continued to the outer reaches of the Longshaw Estate and included some great views of a herd of Red Deer silhouetted on the horizon. We carried on to Greaves's Piece and then along the narrow wooded valley beneath Hewetts Bank where other waymark crosses could be seen. We had lunch on the edge of Leash Fen, an expanse of marsh and (reputedly) the site of a village that sank beneath the bog and is immortalised by a local rhyme;

When Chesterfield was gorse and broom,

Leash Fen was a market town,
Now Chesterfield's a market town,

Leash Fen is but gorse and broom.

There was no evidence of a Peak District Atlantis so we continued past a stone circle and over Bar Brook onto the wild top of Big Moor. There were more deer, Curlew, Buzzards and Kestrel as well as a herd of magnificently shaggy Highland Cattle. The Eastern Moors Partnership (RSPB and National Trust) have removed sheep from various areas of the moorland to see how the foliage regenerates and there was already clear evidence of this which made the walk across the tops hard work. Eventually we reached the White Edge Trig point and dropped down off the edge towards Stoke Flat. We followed the wooded fringe of Froggatt Edge up to Tumbling Hill where we had some great views back down to Grindleford before heading back to Brunt's Barn.

To view the full photo album for this walk please click on the link below;

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.197494530369460&type=1