A Walk from Over Haddon

After leaving the car in the surprisingly large car park in the village of Over Haddon, Karen and I followed a short section of steep road leading down to the river Lathkill. It was another dry Spring day but cooler than yesterday. Crossing over by a stepping stone bridge, we followed a track gradually leading upwards on the opposite bank until we arrived at a very large field with sign indicating the the Public Right of Way leading through the farmyard below.
We crossed the field and passed through the farmyard at Meadow Place Grange, then across several more fields, one in particular having many skylarks both flying and singing and also landing and taking off.
We reached the minor road known as Back Lane which we followed for 600 metres until we arrived at a small car park near Long Rake mine and then followed the well-signposted Limestone Way across more fields approaching Lathkill Dale which appeared in view as we reached limestone slabs which formed steps leading steeply down into Cales Dale, a minor tributary of Lathkill Dale.
We followed down Cales Dale for a short distance and stopped by the small entrance to Cales Dale Cave which had no water resurging and ate our lunch. After lunch, we followed down the rest of Cales Dale and at Lathkill Dale crossed a foot bridge to the opposite side of the River Lathkill and then turned right and followed the flowing river downstream.
On reaching the well-known landmark of the Tufa Dam, we stopped to take photos and I disturbed a large bird which took off and landed again a short distance away before again taking off and flying downstream. Checking with the RSPB web site when we got hone we discovered that the bird had been a Sparrowhawk.
We had a look at two old Chert mines which had grilled entrances and were next door to each other a short distance up the side of the dale.
We passed the ruins of Mandale Mine Engine House and Bateman's House. This unusual building was originally built in 1830 by the Lathkill Dale Mining Company to cover a 12m deep shaft housing a novel design of water-powered pump to drain their lead mines. It later also served the dual as the family home for the company's agent James Bateman.
We continued on along the side of the river until we reached the stepping stone bridge which we had crossed earlier. This left the short but steep walk back up to Over Haddon and back to the car.
I wore Keela stretch trousers, Asolo Fugitive GTX boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack. It was so warm I only wore a Berghaus shirt carrying everything else in my rucksack.