Walk from Hartington to Pilsbury Castle

Again we started the day at the Old Smithy café where Keith had arranged to meet Phil Walker and Richard Smith for a digging trip at the bottom of the Ventilator in Water Icicle Close Cavern. Unfortunately, Phil was suffering from a virus and couldn't make it.

We left Keith and Richard in Monyash and returned to the Orpheus cottage to wash and put away the ropes from yesterday's trip in Maskhill Mine.

After this was done we parked in the village of Hartington and walked out of the village on the gated road heading northwards as far as Bank Top Farm where a rising track brought us to gate on a bend on the concreted track.

From here the route followed a public footpath across fields along the side of a wide valley with views of Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill in the far distance and Sheen Hill to the east which looks a little like a fort on top of a small hill but is a natural rocky outcrop with a trig point on top.

We soon dropped down to the large limestone formation at Pilsbury Castle after choosing the left-hand path at a crossroads of two public footpaths.

Pilsbury Castle is the site of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle but very little remains of the castle: a few earthworks and mounds.

We stopped during a sunny spell on this cloudy day and had a snack then continued on along a grassy track towards the hamlet of Pilsbury before veering off to follow a narrow track and then crossing a footbridge next to the ford crossing the River Dove which is still narrow at this stage.

The bridge brought us to a rough track leading past the drive for the lovely old building of Broadmeadow Hall then we left the track to follow a public footpath as it led across a rising sloping section of fields bringing us soon to the recently restored buildings at High Close Farm.

Here we joined a minor road for two or three hundred metres then left it at the buildings of Harris Close to follow another public footpath which crossed several fields then ran alongside a steep section of valley above the River Dove.

After dropping diagonally down the slope a route across a large meadow brought us to another footbridge crossing the River Done back into Derbyshire from Staffordshire where we had been for a short while since crossing the river earlier. There was a flock of very noisy sheep gathered in a section of a nearby farmyard, presumably while lambs and ewes were being separated.

After crossing some more fields and passing through a short section of wood, we arrived at the drive to the old cheese factory in Hartington village where we had started from.