Three Shire Heads from Wildboarclough

After leaving the car at a small abandoned quarry by the road in the Cheshire village of Wildboarclough, we walked northwards about a kilometre along the minor road and then left it to follow a track passing the small Cumberland Cottage. As it had been forecast, it was windy and wet.

At a bend in the track, we continued again to the north, on a path which followed a small valley with a small brook. There was a small ruined building which offered some shelter from the cold wind and as the rain had stopped for a while, we sat there to have a hot drink and some food.

The path continued for a short distance to arrive at a T-junction with a bridleway heading to the south-east and north-west towards the Cat and Fiddle inn. Following the rocky-surfaced bridleway brought us to the A54 road.

We crossed the road to the other side and followed a rougher track which brought us through the remains of the Danebower quarries and then after about half a kilometre we passed through a metal field gate with a smaller gate built inside it, to follow a footpath across boggy moorland to the south and then after a bend joined another rough track which leads down to Panniers Pool at Three Shire Heads.

We had another short stop at the picturesque pool and waterfalls and had another hot drink as someone on a trial bike road by despite there being no access allowed for motorised vehicles.

Continuing on again, we crossed the small pack-horse bridge and followed the stony track as it gradually rose and curved towards a minor road below Cut-thorn Hill where the route continued on the other side after passing a stile.

A vague path continued across fields to again arrive at the A54 again which we then recrossed to continue on a continuing path the other side which had short sections of raised wooden walkways due to the very boggy going.

After passing a small stone barn, we joined a minor road after walking a short distance through a small wood near the large Crag Hall in Wildboarclough.

After yet another short distance walking down the minor road, we again reached our starting point.

Robins Shaft Mine

After yesterday's lounging around at home due to the non-stop rain, Karen Keith and myself were glad to have a much drier day today. We had met Keith as arranged yesterday morning in Monyash for breakfast at the café but it was pissing down and the café was closed until next weekend. So we quickly decided to “sod this” and stay indoors for a change as the forecast was for a very wet day, and it proved to be accurate!

We collected a 100 metre rope from the Orpheus CC cottage and then drove south through Alstonefield just over the border in Staffordshire for a quick trip in Robins Shaft Mine.

We parked in the farmyard and asked permission to enter the mine and paid our £1.50 each fee. The farmer allowed us to change in the adjacent barn as it was a very cold and strong wind blowing today and we were grateful of the shelter.

Keith began rigging sown the 100 metre shaft as Karen and I were sheltering from the wind by the drystone wall partly surrounding the entrance.

Soon Karen followed and I brought up the rear.

This is a very peculiar mine with the shaft at an angle varying from 45 to 60 degrees with several convenient ledges cut horizontally into it which provide very easy rebelays.

Our rope didn't quite reach the bottom of the shaft but luckily did reach the natural cave section some 10 metres from the bottom which was where we intended to have a look at anyway as the foot of the shaft doesn't really bring you to any significant length of passage.

We had a good poke around the natural cave section with a lovely small domed ceiling in one section and also some boulders which were very yellow in colour with sections of red colouration. Very interesting geology.

Soon we started back to the surface in the reverse order with me first followed by Karen and then Keith de-rigging as he went. It is surprisingly easy re-ascending the 100 meters on an inclined shaft as compared to a vertical one.

We changed out of caving gear in the barn and then said “good-bye” to Keith who was heading home to Rugby for the New Year.

Eyam Moor

Originally we planned on a walk from Hope along part of the Great Ridge via Lose Hill but when we parked in Hope I found that I had left my walking socks at home. Rats.

So we dropped in at Outside in Hathersage so that I could but a pair (which wasn't a waste as some pairs of socks I have are getting towards the end of their life).

Since we had now wasted some time and were heading away from home of we returned to Hope, we changed our plans to walk in the Eyam Moor area from Sir William Hill.

So, after parking up on the rough track across Sir William Hill and putting on my new socks and walking boots (which have a broken lace loop but I picked up the wrong boots as well as forgetting my socks – D'oh!), we walked the kilometre plus of track arriving at a junction with tarmaced road.

From here we followed another track with a soft, muddy surface as it dropped down to Nether Bretton and a minor road.

After following this road south-westwards for one or two hundred metres, we then followed a public footpath which began on a drive belonging to a house next to the road and then along the side of the house to a stile brining us to some large fields.

The path continued across the fields and then steeply down some muddy steps to soon arrive at a small footbridge crossing the Bretton Brook.

On the other side of the brook, the path continued upwards along a valley and then after another stile, some more fields passing Cockey Farm to eventually arrive at the small village or hamlet of Abney.

From here, we followed a muddy path leading down Abney Clough to Stoke Ford and then after crossing another footbridge, the route gradually rose to eventually bring us to the top of the side of Bretton Clough and we stopped for a short break in the shelter of a very small crag to get out of the cold wind.

From here we made our way along the path to reach the drystone-wall forming the boundary of Eyam Moor where we crossed the wall using a stile and then crossed the heathery and in parts wet moorland.

Soon we were back at the wall running along side Sir William Hill Road where we started our walk.

Grindleford to Longshaw Estate

A shorter walk today with dry and sunny weather forecast as we parked in the road leading to Grindleford café.

We climbed the steps from the car park and crossed a road then again climbed more steps rising through woods until we reached the top and the path levelled out.

This brought us to a wall and a gate opening on to the Longshaw Estate and after crossing a lovely open wooded area, we headed for the beautiful old Lodge which is now owned by the National Trust and had cake and tea in the café.

Afterwards we followed a path through the Estate arriving at the same road as before, from the opposite side and further along towards Higgar Tor and after crossing the road and again passing through a wall with a gate, we were at the top of Padley Gorge.

We followed the path as it gradually descended the wooded gorge parallel to the stream

Soon we were back at the road passing Totley Tunnel and we had more tea and a snack in Grindleford Cafe, one of the best in the Peak!

A Wet Day on Kinder Scout

With a forecast for heavy rain and strong winds, Karen decided to stay at home and I went walking on Kinder Scout again. One of us probably has more sense, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I had the Barber Booth car park to myself when I arrived and after getting my boots on I set off in the rain along the road which was covered with deep puddles.

I left the road at the Upper Booth Farm and walked through the farmyard and then on the route tracing the Pennine Way towards Grindsbrook Booth. I left the route to Grindsbrook Booth where the route up Grindslow Knoll starts and made my way up in the continuing rain. So far there had been no wind but there was rain.

Near the summit of Grindslow Knoll, I didn't bother with the very top as it was misty but continued along the path along the side overlooking the drop down to Grindsbrook Clough where I could hear the roar from the water flowing off the plateau of Kinder down Grinds Brook. Even through the mist I could see all the white water in the brook down below.

I then continued northwards along the edge path and when I came to the usual crossing place where you can get past the northern branch of Grinds Brook, there was so much water I decided to continue onwards along the bank to see of I could find a place to cross to the other side. Not too far along the bank I found a spot where a couple of large boulders were placed not too far apart and I was able to carefully step across from bank to boulder then to the second boulder and then finally onto the opposite bank.

The rain became heavier and there was some wind blowing up from the vale of Edale across the plateau but it wasn't anywhere near the strength forecasted.

Normally by now I would be planning to find a convenient spot to have lunch but as it was raining, I pushed on.

Up to now I had seen absolutely no one else out walking, not a surprise considering the weather and the nearness to Christmas, but now I saw a couple of men walking towards me on their way in the opposite direction.

When I reached the area of Ringing Roger, I dropped down the path below the rocky rib of Ringing Roger which was basically a stream in most parts with all the run-off. Also the rain had lightened to a fine drizzle

When I eventually reached nearly the bottom of the zig-zag path I passed another man our walking in the opposite direction,

Near the bridge crossing Grinds Brook as it flows through Grindsbrook Booth there is a small stone-built barn with a wooden bench and I sat on that to eat my lunch and have drink from my flask.

I continued afterwards down the last bit of stone-flagged path and across the bridge to the village and then followed the start of the Pennine Way (or the end if you started in Scotland and walked southwards!) back to Upper Booth Farm and then back along the road to the car park.

The sheep thought it was wet as well!

High water levels

Normally a path - today a stream

The Grinds Brook as it passes the viallage

Howden Edge (At least that was the plan!)

The plan was to walk on a section of Derwent Edge we hadn't been on before so we would be starting from the end of the road at Kings Tree past the Derwent and Howden reservoirs. Now this road is closed on Sundays at this time of year but there is a bus which runs past Fairholmes car park which stops at Kings Tree. This would save having to walk several kilometres along the road at the start of the walk.

We parked at Fairholmes car park after carefully driving past the crowd of mallard ducks and I bought a sandwich for lunch at the kiosk in the car park. The 222 bus stopped just outside the car park and we had 10 minutes before the 1015 bus was due.

We got off at the bus turning point at Kings Tree and set off along the cycle track/path through some trees and soon arrived at the old pack-horse bridge at Slippery Stones.

From here we continued along the bridleway until we reached a junction with a footpath continuing ahead northwards with the bridleway veering off eastwards.

Now I had read a description somewhere on the web about it being possible to leave the footpath (which was actually a land rover track) and follow a zigzagging path to reach a path higher up near a trig point at Outer Edge which then led towards Howden Edge. There was an obvious very sharp bend in the track after the point we should leave it and we hadn't reached that yet. We couldn't see very much on our right due to the lay of the land and as we hadn't seen any zigzagging paths, we decided to climb the steeper ground through deep heather.

We reached a large flat area of moor with a large craggy are of ground ahead. Looking at the map and confirming our position with my Garmin Etrex GPS, I realised this was Horse Stone Naze and we were on a section of land called The Lands. This was not where we wanted to be!

So we headed Little Stainery Clough and returned down a very steep section of heather covered bank to regain the land rover track. Realising where we went wrong, we returned back along the land rover track and then followed a rising Permissive footpath to reach Broadhead Clough where we stopped next to the steam and ate lunch.

Looking more closely at the map, I realised that we had assumed we had been on the green dotted line of the public right of way, but we were on a track which was shown on the map separately a short distance away, and the track didn't follow a sharp bend unlike the marked public right of way. This had been my mistake and why we went wrong. Oh well, there's always next time.

As we had wasted a lot of time and we were unsure how long it would take to now follow the correct route in the area of Broadhead Clough to reach Howden Edge and then follow it and drop back down near Howden dam, we decided to take the easy option and retrace part of our route back to Slippery Stones and then along the cycle route/bridleway following the sides of Howden and Derwent reservoirs back to Fairholmes car park. On the way we met Pete M out with someone on a cycle ride and then Ron and Patsy who were out for a short walk after spending the morning at Edale MTR's base in Hope attending a Casualty Care course.

It had been warmer than recently at around 6 degrees Celsius and I spent the day wearing a Montane Sabretooth softshell jacket which was warm and comfortable enough but when we stopped for a short rest near the end of the walk, I put on a Paramo Velez Smock (which I had been carrying in my rucksack in case of showers, which luckily never materialised) for extra warmth as it was cooling down as it was cooling down rapidly as the sun was setting as it was past 1530.

Old Packhorse Bridge

Howden Dam

Derwent Dam

A Walk around Castleton Show Caves

After leaving the car in a small layby on the Chapel-en-le-Frith road near Windy Knoll, Karen and I crossed the fields by Windy Knoll and crossed the road at the track to Rowter Farm. From there we followed a public footpath on the pastureland and after crossing a wall stile and another field we arrived at a rough track leading past an old mining area with the traces of a steam engine peeking out of the ground in the field on the other side of the track.

We turned left on the track and after reaching the junction with the Rowter Farm track, we passed through a field gate and followed another public footpath leading down towards the top of Cave Dale.

Rather than going down Cave Dale to reach Castleton, we followed another footpath leading towards the large Peak Cavern Gorge which brought us to the opposite side of Peveril Castle. We had a short hot drink break in a sheltered spot with views across to Winnats Pass and Mam Tor. It was a cold day (around 5 degrees Celsius) with a strong wind and an occasional light shower.

Next we dropped down the steep grassy slope to reach a path next to a field wall which was very slippery with patches of mud and greasy wet limestone rocks. This brought us to nearby Castleton village where we bought some snacks in a shop and sat on a bench around a tree in the market square to eat them.

After a quick look around some shops we returned along the slippery path we followed before then continued to follow it towards Winnats Pass.

Near Speedwell Cavern, we crossed the road which drops down Winnats Pass and then followed a very muddy path opposite leading to Treak Cliff Cavern.

The route followed past the show cave's buildings the climbed up and curved around the ground above Odin Mine to bring us to Blue John Cavern, another show cave.

We followed the tarmaced road to the remaining section of main road which used to lead down to Castleton below Mam Tor until in the late 70's it collapsed again as it had many times before due to the shaly ground and was finally abandoned.

It was just a short distance back from here to back to our starting point.

Looking across to Win Hill Pike

Part of the Great Ridge

Mam Tor in the distance, Kinder Scout beyond

An old steam engine buried near mine remains

An old barn with Mam Tor behind

Peveril Castle with Cave Dale to the right

Cave Dale

Peakshole Water, the outflow of Peak Cavern in Casleton

Someone interested in the apple Karen was eating

Speedwell Cavern and Winnats Pass

Oxlow Cavern

After the usual meet-up at the Old Smithy café in Monyash with Keith for breakfast, we drove to the Orpheus Caving Club cottage to pick up ropes and tackle bags for a trip to Oxlow Cavern.

There had been a scattering of snow on higher ground on Thursday night and as temperatures were hovering around freezing, the road from Monyash was a bit slippery and the section of track beyond the first gate from the road to the OCC cottage was covered with ice so we left the car in the field by the track along with some other vehicles already there and walked the remaining distance to the cottage.

We said “hello” to all that were there (it was the club Xmas Dinner tonight) and grabbed the ropes and bags and set off for Oxlow Farm.

The barn had been recently repaired after the roof had blown off some months ago but there was a car parked lengthwise in the small area by the road where the farmer allows cavers to park so we left our trespass money (£2 each) and drove back down the road to park at the small layby next to the stile which allows access to Oxlow Cavern Maskhill Mine and Nettle Pot.

We had a chilly change into caving gear and walked across the snowy fields to the Oxlow entrance and as Keith was on rigging duty, he descended first with Karen and I following afterwards.

It was quite drippy underground and quite chilly at the foot of the entrance shaft due to the cold draught coming down the shaft.

We dropped to the bottom of all the pitches to get to the large West Chamber and had a quick look at the remaining pitch to the sump pool below Maskhill Mine where there was quite a lot of water dropping down opposite.

After a short “Mars Bar break” we headed out to reach the surface again at around 1445, having entered the cave at just around noon.

After walking back to the car through a cold wind and getting changed, we returned to the OCC cottage to wash the ropes and bags and then headed for home for a while.

Later in the evening we joined others for the Orpheus Caving Club Xmas Dinner at the Duke of York along the A515 towards Buxton from Parsley Hay.

Offerton Moor

Today the two of us followed the same walk I had done recently starting at Leadmills near Hathersage passing Stoke Ford and Abney then back across Offerton Moor. Again, like yesterday, it was a clear and sunny but very cold day, luckily with less of yesterday's biting cold wind.

As we set off from Leadmills, I though I saw a squirrel running along the drystone garden wall of a nearby house and pointed to out to Karen. We then realised it wasn't a squirrel at all: it was a stoat!

Bleaklow

With a forecast for a cold and frosty day and also sunny and clear weather, a decision was made to make best use of the conditions and have walk on Bleaklow.

Bleaklow is another large boggy peaty plateau to the north of Kinder Scout and with the cold weather we were hoping the boggy bits would be frozen and there would be fantastic views with the clear conditions. And so it proved to be.

After driving to Glossop, we parked in the old part of the town in Shepley Street then left the town via a bridleway on a rough track leaving the street a short distance away. After a few hundred metres, the track curved around a bend and through a gate. Here a footpath led uphill straight-ahead also through a small gate.

Following the path up the ridge as it steepened above the large ravine formed by Yellowslacks Brook, we stopped for a short break sitting in the sun on some gritstone boulders.

Continuing on with our walk, we followed the edge of the ravine until eventually we were almost at the same level as the brook. Then we veered off to see if we could find our intended destination of Bleaklow Head and the Wain Stones. Soon we could see a large rocky tor not too far away but this we soon figured out were the Hern Stones and the rocks we could see further to the north must be the Wain Stones.

After tuning northwards we made our way across the tussocks and boggy sections and soon arrived at the Wain Stones which from a certain angle appear to be kissing each other!

We sat in the shelter from the very cold wind and ate our lunch while we looked at the views of the surrounding Peak District in all directions. Next we followed a vague footpath to our next point of call, the Hern Stones.

From the Hern Stones we headed due south and hoped to intersect Crooked Clough and the route of the Pennine Way at Devil's Dike. As we were heading that way, we saw something peculiar ahead and not too far away: a large circular object in silhouette due to the low winter sun to the south with regular blobs of some sort spaced around its circumference.

As we got nearer, we realised it was one of the many aircraft wrecks which can be found on Kinder and Bleaklow. What we had seen was part of one of the radial aircraft engines from a USAF B29 Superfortess. There was a large amount of wreckage spread over maybe a quarter of a mile with a memorial plaque explaining that the crash had happened in 1948 an all 13 on board had died. There were also a number of Poppy Day poppy memorials, some which must have been left there quite a few years ago judging from their condition. The plaque read "IN MEMORY Here lies the wreckage of B-29 Superfortress "Overexposed" of the 16th. photographic reconnaissance squadron USAF which tragically crashed whilst descending through cloud on 3rd November 1948 killing all 13 crew members. The aircraft was on a routine flight from RAF Scampton to American AFB Burtonwood. It is doubtful the crew ever saw the ground."

From here we continued onwards to reach a path skirting the top of a declivity called Devil's Dike and is part of the Pennine Way. This brought us to a crossing of a another path called Doctor's Gate which we then followed north-eastwards above Shelf Brook. In sections this path was very icy where water which had been flowing across or along it, had frozen so we pause to put on our Kahtoola Microspikes which made progress a lot quicker and more secure.

Luckily the worst of the icy section wan;t too long, so we again stopped for a minute to remove the Microspikes again.

We followed the route of Doctor's Gate back along the valley and it seemed a lot further than we expected. This brought us back to the bridleway section of rough track we had followed earlier near Glossop.

We turned back along the track to retrace our previous route pausing for a few minutes as we watched a heron which was standing in the river below the track.

Soon we were back at the car and after changing from our boots, we headed back along the Snake Pass to Bamford and then to Hathersage for a meal at Outside.

As I had found my rucksack was very full with a Rab Bergen Jacket, a Buffalo Windcheeta Jacket (which I had worn during stops) and an old Ultimate Equipment bodywarmer, I decided to get a larger rucksack and bought a 50 litre Osprey Atmos in Outside.

Yellowslacks Brook

Karen and Yellowslacks Brook

The Wain Stones

Bleaklow's Summit

Engines from the crashed B-29 Superfortress

Memorial Plaque

Poppies on an engine from the recent Remembrance Day

More wreckage disappearing in to the distance

Icicles at a small pool

Looking back at Bleaklow in the sun