Alport Castles from Fairholmes

After leaving the car with the marauding ducks at Fairholmes we walked back up the road a short distance before turning off the road to follow a path rising through the woods to reach Lockerbrook Farm which is nowadays an Outdoor Centre which is in an isolated position but with tremendous views. There were kids enjoying outdoor activities in the nearby woods involving stacks of plastic beer crates and dangling from ropes in the trees.
From here we followed a track and passed a stile over a drystone wall higher up which we should have crossed but we kept on the track to a junction with a second one which led us below Bellhag Tor when really we should have been following a path above the Tor. No problem though as we followed the second track passing the well-preserved Ballhag Barn until we found a stile leading into Open Access country below Bellhag Tor in Rowlee Pasture.
We could see a path ahead on the tussocky (I don't know if that is a word but the ground was largely tussocks of grass) Pasture. Following this path we gradually gained height along the valley side until we met the path we should have been on all along which was paved with the large limestone slabs you see often nowadays on many paths in the Peak District.
This path led along Rowlee Pasture following the Ashop valley down below with a lone Buzzard soaring nearby until we reached the huge landslip which is known as Alport Castles.
We sat on a hummock of ground overlooking the Castles and had a hot drink and snack then followed the narrow path wending its way down from Rowlee Pasture to reach Alport Castles Farm.
From the farm we followed a track on the opposite side of the River Ashop until we reached the main A57 road. Crossing over the busy road, we continued on the track on the far side after crossing the river on a concrete weir as the nearby footbridge had collapsed recently and luckily the water was very shallow.
The track continued until we arrived at a fork with the right-hand side continuing onwards below Blackley Hey. Our route was the left-hand fork dropping down to cross a bridge over a leat formed from gritstone blocks which carries water to the nearby Derwent Valley reservoirs. Then onwards crossing the river again at Rowlee Bridge to again cross the A57.
On the opposite side of the A57after passing Rowlee Farm we followed a short, steep grassy path which formed a more direct route than the adjacent winding rough track, brought us to back to the track we had been following earlier near Bellhag Barn.
From here we retraced our earlier route back to where we had started at Fairholmes car park where the marauding ducks were still mobbing people who had bough biscuits or pieces of lovely home-made cake from the shop in the car park.