Biggin Dale, Wolfescote Dale and Beresford Dale from Hartington

The morning temperature was well below zero degrees centigrade as I left Karen at home with things to do and drove to the nearby village of Hartington.

As I was earlyish at 09:30, there were plenty of places to park in the village centre car park and after getting my boots on, I left the village centre with its frozen duck pond to walk up the hill past the very old and impressive Hartington Hall, which is a Youth Hostel, then passed through a gate into some fields.

The ground was frozen rock-hard as I followed the marked path through squeeze stiles then onto the unsurfaced track called Highfield Lane.

I passed a large flock of fieldfares in the field the other side of the bordering drystone wall and after walking along the lane for about 2 kilometres the lane joins a minor road very near to the top end of Biggin Dale.

My route was through a gate from the minor road and then down Biggin Dale where I stopped in the shelter of a small branching dale as there was a very cold wind blowing, to have lunch.

Afterwards I continued along Biggin Dale to join the larger Wolfescote Dale where the two dales join.

Wolfescote Dale has part of the River Dove flowing along it and I turned to the north-west to follow the river and the dale to where the dale runs out at a large flat field.

The route followed a public right of way across the field with the often wet and muddy sections frozen.

After crossing a short footbridge I arrived at the start of the smaller Beresford Dale which leads to another section of pastureland and then back to Hartington.