Saturday 30 October 2010

DCA Council Meeting and A Walk to Minninglow

Karen and I spent the morning at a Derbyshire Caving Association Council Meeting in the morning at Monyash Village Hall. Afterwards we drove to the Minninglow car park on the High Peak Trail near Pikehall.
From the car park, we walked along the High Peak Trail for a while until we reached a Concessionary Footpath leading to Minninglow, a few hundred metres away.
Minninglow is an obvious landmark in the White Peak countryside and can be seen in the distance from many places. It is a large flat-shaped hill with a ring of large trees, which makes it fairly distinctive and easy to spot.
The summit has a cairn measuring around 35metres by 45 metres consisting of at least four chambers. The Low originally started as a single chamber with a small mound probably built during the Neolithic period. Later it was covered by a long cairn with four chambers and later still converted into a massive circular mound, perhaps during the Bronze Age.
From here, we walked across fields back towards the High Peak Trail and passed underneath the Trail through a short tunnel then across a few more fields to the farm of Roystone Grange.
Here we had a look at the remains of the mediaeval farmstead and sat for a while having a snack. Cistercian monks farmed here during the Middle Ages, but there were earlier inhabitants. There is visible evidence of Roman settlement in the area with he boulders in the fields and traces of a Roman Manor House and farm buildings. You can also see remains of a Romano-British “fossil” field system.
Continuing on the path through the farmyard we followed a lane until we arrived back at a minor road leading back to a junction where we turned right to arrive back at the car park.

Views of High Peak Trail



Megalithic structures on summit of Minninglow



Top of Minninglow in the distance

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