A Walk on Stanton Moor in the Snow

Winster in the Distance

After breakfast in the morning, Karen decided to have a rest day at home, Keith and Pete were planning to return underground to drop Elevator Pitch while I decided to go for a walk as it was a lovely cold and clear day with snow covering the hills around.
I set off towards Edale but after a short distance changed my mind as there was quite a lot of snow still laying on the side roads so it made sense to walk from home.

A Snowy Wall and Tree
So I headed towards Stanton Moor in the sun with lovely views of snow covered land all around but once on the Moor, some clods moved in and the first of several snow showers started. After passing Nine Ladies Stone Circle I followed the path leading past the Cork Stone and a short way down the road passing Birchover Quarry then back onto a path leading down to the Druid Inn in Birchover.

Carved Bench at Rowtor Rocks

I walked up the short steps behind the pub leading to the interesting collection of gritstone and gritstone boulders called Rowtor Rocks. These have natural “caves” and voids, some natural some carved out into he form of chambers. There are many carved features including some seats and a bench with a sheltering roof. I sat on this bench and ate my sandwich.

Sheep Coming Into Their Winter Colours

 After lunch I return back along the steps behind the pub and then along the track past the church towards Rocking Stone farm, then uphill on path past a couple of cottages and along a path following an edge until I reached another track leading from Birchover towards Winster.
I followed this track for a distance, avoiding patches of ice and then at a footpath sign into a field. This led me across some more fields the up some steep steps of gritstone slabs, over style and into some small woods near Winster.

A Style

 

Following a path through the woods then along a track which crossed the Winster to Elton road past Winster Cemetery, I crossed the road then along a farm track for a short while before again following a footpath across fields to criss the same road further uphill leading to the grounds of Oddo House. This house is known for a duel which happened many years ago and there is some information on Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winster.

Passing through a squeeze style, I past Winster church and then only had to drop down West Bank for a few yards then into Main Street and a back home at about 14:00.

Winster Church

 Later in the afternoon, there was a lengthier and heavier snow shower and a few inches settling on the road. We got a phone call at around 16:45 from Keith to say they were back on the surface and stuck in Monyash due to the snow!
Luckily they phoned again a short while later saying the had managed to get a farmer to tow them out of the village.