A Walk on Lantern Pike

The weather forecast was reasonably good and Karen and I decided on a walk instead of caving. We had often passed below Lantern Pike near Hayfield on our weekend trips to the Yorkshire Dales as we headed towards Glossop so we decided on a circular walk starting at the small village of Rowarth.
After parking in the car park at Rowarth we headed past some houses and then through a narrow path between two gardens. This lead onto open ground gradually rising towards Cown Edge. We eventually arrived at a track and took a slight detour of a quarter of a mile or so to have a look at two small gritstone rock columns on a gritstone plinth marked on the map as “Robin Hood's Picking Rods”. It is believed that the stones are over 1,100 years old and may be the remains of a cross.
We returned back the way we came and followed our route leading to Cown Edge which is a large horse-shoe formed by a land slip around a mile across. There were a number of ravens flying around, obviously favouring the rocky outcrops of Cown Edge Rocks. After this we followed an old sunken lane leading to the minor road known as Monks Road.
After a mile or so we took advantage of a rocky plinth at the start of a drive to a couple of farms to stop for a coffee break and a bit of a snack. This was probably where milk churns were left in the past for collection. We hopped over a stile into a field and followed across this to a small lane and then after a mile or so through a gate to the foot of Lantern Pike. Ignoring the track leading around the bottom of the Pike, we followed a narrow path leading up to the summit where there was a topograph giving the names of all the hills which we could see in all directions including the nearby plateau of Kinder Scout. We dropped down the other Eastern ridge of the Pike for a short way and found a grassy ledge for another coffee break and a snack which was sheltered from the breeze with lovely views across to Kinder Scout and also to Hayfield village below.
Once the snack break was over, we continued down he ridge and followed another road passing the Little Mill Inn which had both a very large iron mill wheel which was turning due to a trickle of water leading along a channel and also an old train carriage known as a Derbyshire Belle Pullman in the garden.
After another short distance we were back at the car park at Rowarth after a very nice walk just over 8 miles long (about 13 kilometres).