It was the first day of Spring but still windy and quite cold. Karen and I drove through Hartington and Hulme End over the River Dove into Staffordshire. We parked at a viewpoint which has a memorial to Paul Rey (1925-1977) which has the text "A rambler and world traveller who inspired so many with his love of the countryside", not far from Upper Elkstone. Apparently there were views to be seen from here, but these were hidden by mist!
We headed a short way along the road and then onto a track until we went through a gate into fields. This dropped down to some farm buildings with an old lime kiln nearby which was used in the past to heat up local limestone to produce Quick Lime which was spread on the fields. We followed onwards and crossed a narrow River Hamps on a short bridge and then a hollowed-out path; hollowed out from so many years of traffic in the past centuries. We arrived at a trig point apparently built on a Tumulus (bronze age barrow) and then dropped steeply to another set of farm buildings. There was a track leading us from the farm to the village of Upper Elkstone.
Leaving the village we crossed moorland until we arrived at a road which we followed and runs next to MOD land where we saw some soldiers on training exercise. We left the road and followed more moorland passing another trig point and again arrived on a road near "The Mermaid" pub. We followed the last mile or so to return back to the car and Karen got in boots and all to get out of the cold wind!
No comments:
Post a Comment