Axe Moor from Derbyshire Bridge

After driving to the small car park at Derbyshire Bridge in the Goyt Valley not far from Buxton, Karen and I followed a path leading South to join a rough track heading East. Although the weather during the week had been mild with temperatures of 17 degrees (Celsius), it was quite a bit cooler today with the forecast temperature of around 8 degrees, but with a stiffish wind, it felt quite a lot cooler.
Last week I had bought a new Rab Sawtooth jacket as a fleece jacket had been too warm. With just a thermal shirt underneath, I found the jacket too cool, even though it was keeping the wind off. So, I stopped for a minute and put a micro fleece top on underneath.
When the track reached the A54 from Buxton we walked along the verge for a couple of a hundred metres then left the road at a stile to follow a path across Axe Moor.
We soon met a minor road by Dane Head and spotted a Skylark in the grass nearby which totally ignored us, unlike the many Grouse which we hear with their usual call of “Go back, go back, go back”. We had also seen and heard a group of Lapwings and heard a Curlew.

Damage on path from trail bikes

Continuing on the path and passing an old quarry we reached a fork with a path leading to the left and right. Our route lay on the path to the right.
After continuing on a path following a drystone wall across moorland until we reached a gate in the wall where a track began and led down past two farmhouses to eventually arrive at a rough track leading down alongside a stream which joined the very picturesque Panniers Pool at Three Shires Head.

Old Pack Horse Trail

En route to Pannier Pool

Looking upstream from Pannier Pool

Old Pack Horse Bridge at Pannier Pool

Pannier Pool

We stopped here for lunch then continued on the path heading North along another stream which lead to farmland by a farm marked as “Holt” on the map.
Soon we reached ruins of small stone-built buildings marked “Reeve-edge Quarries” with a sloping mine entrance blocked by metal bars and an old stone-built square chimney not far away. These are the remnants of Danebower Colliery which was abandoned in the 1920's.

Red Grouse peeking at us

Chimney belonging to Danebower Colliery

Remains of Danebower Colliery

The route followed a grassy track which then curved back on itself below the large chimney and we followed a shallow ravine steeply upwards for a short distance to reach a stile by the armco barrier on the A54.
We crossed to the opposite side and then went through a gate which brought us onto a wide, rough track across the moorland for a couple of kilometres to arrive directly opposite the Cat and Fiddle pub which is the second highest pub in England.
After crossing the road (A537 or Cat and Fiddle road), we followed the road Northwards for about 300 metres to leave by a another wide and rough track leading past a Stake Farm. We stopped in the shelter of a hollow nearby to finish off lunch, then continued on the track until we reached a path leading off to the right by a drystone wall which headed downhill to Stake Clough and then through a section of felled wood by Deep Clough.

The Cat and Fiddle pub

The path curved around past some ruined buildings and then headed South by the other side of the wood parallel to the River Goyt and its accompanying minor road below us. The path soon arrived at the minor road a little bit further on and after a few hundred metres we arrived back at our starting point.
Although it had been a bit misty to start with, the cloud base remained quite high and this meant we had plenty of fine views.