A Walk Around Alport Castle

Karen and I drove along the Snake Pass and parked in a layby past the Snake Pass Inn at Birchen Clough and then after walking a short way back down the road on the grass verge joined a footpath at a style which led upwards through a conifer plantation. During this section of the walk we saw not only some sheep but also a cat, which was a bit unexpected.
The path broke out of the wooded area into open moorland and we followed a public footpath which passed a farm then onto an unsurfaced track leading to the hamlet of Alport.
Just past Alport we crossed the Alprort River, still a narrow stream at this point, by a footbridge and as it was about noon we sat by the bridge and had lunch.
After lunch we made our way along the rising path and found an ewe on its side facing downhill in the bracken with marks on the ground where it had tried to right itself but failed. It was obviously in a bad way and had an eye injury which may have been an old injury as its horn on the same side was also damaged. Karen tried to raise it on its feet but it was too weak to stand but at least it was now laying with its legs downhill so hopefully would have been able to right itself once it had recovered from laying head downwards.
Anyway we continued on the rising path leading towards the edge above at Alport Castles with views of the large rock formation know as The Tower with a wild landscape caused by an ancient landslip.
Soon we were walking along the edge of the moor above with fleeting glimpses of sunbeams through the cloud behind us. The weather forecast had been for dry and sunny weather but although it had been dry, it had been a bit misty and also overcast.
We continued along the edge path following the wide and deep valley with the Alport river below and as we followed up the valley, we skirted around a couple of “cloughs” which joined the main valley.
Our route back to where we had started on the other side of the valley and we could either continue on our side tot he head of the valley towards Bleaklow and then back on the other side via part of the Pennine Way, which would add another 3 miles and make the walk a total of 12 in total, or drop down the steep valley side, cross the stream then make our way 300 feet up the the opposite steep valley side. This was the option we chose, which was also the route described in the guide book which we had seen the walk in.
Once across the other side of the valley, we again walked along the edge now following the valley downstream until we needed to leave the valley and head off at a bearing of 220° for a couple of miles leading is back to Birchen Clough and where we had started. As luck would have it, we crossed the moor and crossed a few peat groughs then as we reached the conifers by Birchen Clough and saw below the road and very near to where we stood a stile over the fence then a steep path leading down through the trees to the car below.

Unusal Stile design - much easier to cross!

 Alport Castles