A Walk on Masson Hill from Cromford

Luckily today was also a lovely sunny but cold day. Deciding on a shortish walk, Karen and I drove to Cromford and parked in Water Lane then followed a path leading uphill behind cottages and houses with views opening across the village of Cromford.

 Grass with Hoar Frost

After a while we reached a junction on the path in woods, just behind the large house called “Cromford Court” with an obvious opening described as a “cave” in the guidebook. It was obviously an old lead mine. We got head torches out from our rucksacks, left the rucksacks just inside the entrance and went to explore. It was pleasant going with fairly dry walls and floor and easy walking passageways. Not far in there was a raising in the ceiling, obviously an old stope, with an opening not too far above with daylight pouring in – obviously a shaft.

 Mine behind Cromford Court

Further in we passed a couple of junctions and the main passage reached a dead end after a 45 metres or so. The side passages did the same and were shorter.
Returning back to the surface with our rucksacks, we continued on following the path through the woods. Continuing on the footpath, passing some cottages, we arrived at a rough track. This brought us via some fields to Ember Lane which leads to Bonsall.
We ignored Ember Lane and instead followed the route signposted through the farmyard at Ember Farm to arrive at a green lane after passing through a gate.
We had a quick break, sitting on a grassy bank having some hot drinks from our flasks before continuing on along the green lane. We passed an upward bend in the lane and continued straight ahead along a narrowing path leading into a field before realising we should have followed the been in the green lane.
We managed to get back on track after crossing part of the next door field and followed the lane to reach a fence with a stile having a large stone block. We crossed the stile and then walked through scrub land now at the summit of Masson Hill and soon reached a walled wood with a squeeze stile. We realised that the way on was to remain outside the wall, so we continued ahead with views down into Matlock and across to Riber Castle. In the distance we could see Longstone Edge, some gritstone edges still with remaining snow and Kinder Scout in the far distance, again still with quite a lot of snow.

 Matlock and Riber Castle

Crossing more fields and stiles, we reached old stone buildings near a rake and a narrow concrete path leading down to a narrow walled path called Dobbs Lane. Below we could see the rooftops of Bonsall village.
We turned left along Dobbs Lane and after a short distance, popped out into Bonsall right by the old market cross. There is a small walled enclosure by the cross with a phonebox, a very interesting map of the village on the wall and a wooden bench. The good thing was that it was in the sun and very welcome on such a cold day – so we made use of the bench to have our lunch.

 Market Cross, Bonsall

Opposite is the Kings Head pub but it seems the not very long opened café next door was for sale and no longer open. A pity, since it was a very nice café with good food and reasonable prices.
Once lunch was finished we continued our walk through Bonsall heading along Church Treet past the church until we reached the end of the tarmac and passed through a gate onto a track which followed on edge of the very large Ball Eye Quarry.

 Bonsall Village Map

Following the perimeter of the quarry brought us to an old access road and after a couple of path junctions we arrived back at Chapel Lane in Cromford very near to where we had parked the car.
We changed out of our walking boots, and as we were so close to Scarthin Books bookshop, we decided to have a look around the bookshop, which is always interesting, and have some cake and a drink in the upstairs café.

 T'Owd Man of Bonsall

I wore my Icepeak X-Treme trousers, Paramo Viento jacket. Also Polar Buff as a hat, Contour Navigator boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.