Cressbrook Dale, Millers Dale and Tideswell Dale from Litton

After breakfast at the Outside café at Calver crossroads, Karen and I drove to the village of Litton and parked near the Red Lion pub.
As we were getting our boots on, I realised I had brought a pair of Karen's socks instead of mine! D'oh! So it was a quick return to Outside to buy another pair of socks. Luckily it wasn't very far to go!
A return to Litton and again parking at the same place. A quick visit to the village shop and Post Office to get snacks for later then along the main road until we spotted the stile and footpath we wanted. Oddly the Public Footpath sign was on the other side of the road.
We followed a well-worn grassy route across several fields connected by stiles on their surrounding drystone walls until we arrived at the small but quite picturesque Tansley Dale. There was an abundance of various wild flowers including Early Purple Orchids and also a large collection of Lead Wort on the spoil heap of old lead mining workings.
Tansley Dale led to the much larger Cressbrook Dale.
Here was a set of stepping stones to allow you to cross to the opposite side of the dale but today they were high and dry as water levels were very low as expected at this time of the year.
We began to follow the dale Northwards towards Wardlow Mires but as we would have to return the same way and also it was very windy, we decided to just turn around and continue as we planned and follow Cressbrook Dale Southwards partly along the wide and grassy dale bottom and partly in small wooded areas until we arrived at the old mill buildings, now converted to flats and Water-cum-Jolly Dale where there were various climbers mainly bouldering with a collection of large crash pads lying around. As seems to be often the case, they appeared to be spending more time sitting around on he mats rather than actually bouldering!
Continuing onwards, passing a mother duck and her brood of ducklings and families of coots and a pair of swans swimming on the wide section of River Wye running through the dale as it became Millers Dale.
At Litton Mill, another set of old mill buildings converted to flats, we followed a minor road uphill to reach the beginning (or end) of Tideswell Dale.
Tideswell Dale leads Northwards towards the village of Tideswell and before we reached Tideswell, we reached a minor road leading back to Litton after a kilometre or so.