Thors Cave from Wetton

We drove across the border at the River Dove near Milldale, through Alstonefield to park in the village car park at the small village of Wetton in the Staffordshire Moorlands. After Karen and I had got our boots on we set off in the sunshine on a surprisingly mild day for the latter half of November walking through the middle of the village which seemed to have quite a few holiday cottages and also seemingly a large population of cats, one of which was having a lie down on a plastic wheely bin in the sun in front of one cottage.

We passed the village pub, “The Royal Oak” and at a road junction by the village church, turned left and followed the road for a short while arriving at a junction with a track where there was a wall stile leading into a field. We followed a route across the field sloping downwards in a shallow valley heading towards the large and obvious rocky feature which is the location of Thor's Cave. Our route crossed another stile and then a short very muddy section dropped down a short way to intersect the path leading up from the Manifold Trail (an old railway track around 80 metres (260 feet) below). The path zig-zagged up with steps made from rocky limestone slabs leading to the symmetrical arch 7.5 metres wide and 10 metres high of Thor's Cave.

We carefully clambered up the sloping and slippery limestone floor (especially with muddy boots!) to gain entry into the large and impressive chamber with a smaller entrance on the right-hand side (looking inwards) and a section of chamber leading to the left as well. After a look around and admiring the view across the Manifold Valley, we again carefully followed the slipper chamber floor back to the path outside the cave and then followed the stepped path to arrive at the Manifold Trail in the valley bottom. Our route crossed the old railway bed then followed a path rising up the opposite side of the valley following through Ladyside Wood bringing us to more pastureland. The public footpath presented us with two others leading to the nearby village of Grindon as we chose the route which avoided dropping down to another small valley only to have to rise up again on the other side.

We walked through Grindon passing a kid's playground by the village church and turned right next to the church and followed a lane heading northwards. We noticed that the sun had disappeared a while before and there was was a cloudy sky in its place, but as we walked along the lane, we found it had begun to get very misty. We followed a route taken by a Public Bridleway down a field and arrived at another which had a large flock of sheep which appeared out of the mist as we made our way to a stile on the opposite side leading to the small Hoo Brook and a path leading down by the brook in a hazel tree wood soon arriving at the old railway station at Wetton Mill. Here we crossed a bridge and had a welcome mug of tea and snack in the café at Wetton Mill. Afterwards, we walked up the minor road leading from the old mill buildings then again followed a public footpath across field heading towards Back of Ecton passing Wetton Hill on our right on a broad track of shorter grass then followed a path around the other side of Wetton Hill heading southwards to arrive back where we had started in Wetton
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