A Walk from Tissington

Karen and I drove the short distance to Tissington and parked in the car park on the Tissington Trail. This is the bed of an old railway that closed in the 60's, but was reopened in 1971 as a bridleway open to horse riders, cyclists and walkers. Again the weather forecast wasn't very good and it started raining gently just as we set off down the trail towards Ashbourne.

We walked across the bridge over the A515 then followed steps up from the trail beside the next bridge, under which the Trail continued. Our route continued through a large caravan park and we saw a weasel running across the track ahead of us and a rabbit in the grassy area nearby. After following the route ahead, we walked a short distance along a minor road, then left that by following a path uphill which led us across several fields until we arrived at a small quarry with an impressive, large, square-shaped lime kiln. We stopped here for a quick drink break.
The route continued across more fields until we arrived at the short gully leading up from the road to Milldale with views of Dovedale below. We found a sheltered spot and had our lunch. Once this was finished we dropped down the gully and then followed the Milldale road uphill for a while eventually reaching the A515. We had to follow this for about 150 metres, but luckily the verge was quite wide as it is a busy road with cars speeding past. We left the A515 at a path leading down to a bridge on the Tissington Trail. Our route was beneath this bridge then through more fields until we arrived at the Alsop to Parwich road. As soon as we arrived at the road though, we left it again through a farm gate and down a leafy track. Not very far along the track, we crossed a style back into fields.
The route took us into Parwich village and after walking through the village, we were crossing fields again, first down to cross Bletch Brook via a small footbridge, then uphill eventually reaching a farm track which led us onto a bridge across the Tissington Trail. We followed on along the track leading us through a churchyard into the village of Tissington itself very nearly opposite the imposing Tissington Hall.
Turning left past the village duck pond and one of the wells which are “dressed” annually and were soon back at the Tissington Trail car park where we started earlier after a very nice walk of about 9 ½ miles.