Offerton Moor from Leadmill Bridge

Another day of fantastic weather. We walked from Leadmill Bridge near Hathersage to Offerton Moor via Stoke Ford in a circular walk. When we nearly were back at the car Karen discovered she had left her sunglasses behind at one point near the end of the walk when she had put them down somewhere.

Luckily she found them after we drove along some narrow lanes to a still we had crossed during the walk.

We had a snack at the café in Outside at Calver Crossroads afterwards.

The small stream of Siney Sitch and footbridge are under the snow somewhere!

Kinder Scout

There was still quite a lot of snow around from last weekend and with a good forecast, Karen and I had a great walk on Kinder.

We walked up via Ringing Roger and followed the path along the southern edge passing the top of Grindsbrook Clough and then up and over Grindslow Knoll and back down to Grinsbrook Booth (Edale) where we had a snack in the National Trust's Pennypot Cafe.

It was a really brilliant day which was cold but mostly sunny with a little wind. Visibility across the Edale Valley and beyond was excellent and even though there was still a lot of snow around, it wasn't very deep as it seemed to have been largely blown off the higher ground by the wind which followed the snowfall last week.

On the way up Ringing Roger we saw a mountain hare in its white winter coat running past. It was trying to escape two unruly dogs (one with a large plastic cone around its neck presumably to prevent it disturbing its bandaged tail).

Meanwhile the dogs' owner was far below us on the path completely oblivious to the dogs actions. Pity he couldn't follow the instructions at each gated access point say dogs must be kept on a lead from 1st March to 31st July due to nesting birds (never mind all the pregnant ewes).

Snow left over from a week ago

Cat enjoying the sun outside the village shop

A new arrival and mum being relocated

Looking across the Edale Valley

Tracks left by a grouse

Heading towards Ringing Roger

Wind sculpted snow

Frozen waterfall

SNOW Again!

After yet more snow, I spent the morning digging out our cars. You can have too much of a good thing!

SNOW

It began to snow in the early hours for Friday morning and was forecast to continue to this afternoon. I wasn't going to be able to drive safely to work but as the site was closed anyway due to the weather, there would have been no point anyway.

This morning, there was even more snow and despite regular trips by the gritting/snow-ploughing lorry, the road was bad as the snow continued to settle.

We decided to go for a short walk locally.

So we walked down Main Street here in Winster then up East Bank passing the Old Bowling Green pub and through a gap between two housed where a public footpath leads across fields to join the route of the Limestone Way.

Karen decided to take the shorter option and walked uphill to the green lane leading back to the Bakewell road near the Miners Standard pub while I continued following the route of the Limestone Way.

It was not very easy walking with the drifted snow sometimes knee-deep and sometimes a little deeper.

When I reached Bonsall Lane, I decided to also keep the walk short, so I headed along this minor road which was partially covered in snow drifts.

Not far from the junction with the Bakewell road, I popped through a squeeze stile and waded through thigh-deep snow and followed a public path across several fields to join the same green lane which Karen had followed.

I followed the lane to the Bakewell Road and dropped back down to Main Street by following a very snowy West Bank.

Main Street, Winster

Looking up East Bank, Winster

The Old Bowling Green, Winster

A Stile on the Limestone Way

Bonsall Lane

A snow-drifted squeeze stile

The Miners Standard, Winster

Top of West Bank, Winster

Lower East Bank, Winster

Winster Church Churchyard

Rushup Edge, Edale

Now I've never walked along Rushup Edge before, although Karen has done many years ago, so that was the plan for today which was supposed to be dry with little wind.

We met Keith and Pete Collins, who we haven't seen for ages, in the café in Monyash for breakfast and afterwards left them to their digging trip in Water Icicle Close Cavern as we drove in the direction of the Chapel-en-le-Frith road from Castleton and parked in one of the laybys near the path leading up to Mam Nick where the road down into Edale passes below Mam Tor.

After walking up the slope towards Mam Nick and Mam Tor, we turned left and followed the route of the bridleway along the top of Rushup Edge, which is the western continuation of the Great Ridge separating Edale and the Hope Valley.

It seemed that most paths this weekend were very muddy, and this was no exception.

It really is a nice walk along the top of Rushup Edge which is a popular site for paragliders, but we didn't see any as we walked along, maybe it was too early as we saw a few later on in the day from below in the Edale valley.

The best thing about Rushup Edge is that you seem to get many more views than from on the southern edge of Kinder Scout both across the Hope Valley, over to Coombs Moss, the Kinder Plateau and Edale Valley and even Derwent Edge in the north-east.

Before the ridge-top path dropped back down to the road, there is a junction with the vehicle track of Chapel Gate. This is an old packhorse route open to all traffic despite not being surfaced and was controversially closed to motorised traffic for many months last year by the Peak Park in order to allow the route to recover from the vehicle usage.

Chapel Gate drops down into the Edale Valley and part way down we sat on the mossy grass next tot the track to have a hot drink when I saw some clouds of steam appear below. There is a railway between Manchester and Sheffield which passes through Edale valley and for part of the time it passes through the Cowburn Tunnel at the head of the valley. Ther was a steam train which had just popped out of the tunnel below us and it continued travelling along the railway in the valley leaving a large white plume of steam trailing behind.

Continuing on our walk we followed the remainder of the track of Chapel Gate until we met a footpath at a gate which crossed several fields and popped out onto the road to Upper Booth where we saw a baby rabbit in the hedge on the other side of the road. After following this road away from Upper Booth, we met the road which drops down from Mam Nick and passed through a gate on the opposite side of the road which led us to another footpath gain crossing fields in the direction of Lose Hill and Back Tor on the Great Ridge.

Where the foopath met a winding lane leading to a farm, we followed a rising footpath on the side of a small valley carrying a stream and this brought us eventually higher up at a stile in the fence next to the road just below Mam Nick on its way down into Edale.

We walk uphill on the road for a few hundred metres and toyed with the idea of then following the bridleway leading up to the Great Ridge on the other side of Mam Tor but we decided to leave Mam Tor for another day and after crossing a stile in the roadside fence onto a path which cut out a large loop of road, we sat on some ground covered with grassy hillocks from past land movements and ate our lunch.

When lunch was finished we followed the remainder of the path for a very short distance back onto the road and then passed through Mam Nick leaving only the grassy slope to drop back down to our starting point.

Looking back from Rushup Edge to Mam Tor

Looking across to Eldon Hill and Giants Hole below

Chapel Dale and Edale Valley

Steam train in Edale Valley

Paragliders flying above Rushup Edge

Edale

The weather forecast was for a showery day but it remained dry for most of the day.
We left the car park in Edale and stopped at the Moorland Centre (National Park information centre) for a look around and then continued a short way further along the road and then left it on a footpath between the camp site at the Moorland Centre and the village cemetery.
This continued through fields paralleling the Great Ridge and the Edale valley road passing through the farmyard at Ollerbrook farm and then past some more farmhouses and cottages.
This brought us to a gate at Rowland Cote, the Edale Youth Hostel where the public footpath passes through the Youth Hostel's grounds.
We passed a group of kids with instructors from the Youth Hostel (which is also and “Activity Centre”) having a great time taking part in an activity involving building a tower of plastic crates while standing on the top of them and slo being belayed with ropes.
The path left the Youth Hostel's drive and our intended route should have followed a path to the right over a wooden footbridge. I was looking at an obvious path to the left through a gate which made its way up the side of a valley, or Clough as they are called around here, called Lady Clough, with a small stream flowing down it.
The path was narrow and fairly muddy in places and to start was very pleasant.
We stopped for a sip of hot drink at the small remains of a sheep fold and after looking at the map, we continued on the narrow path, probably a sheep track, as it didn't appear to get very steep.
After a short muddy step about a metre high which we mounted by grabbing clumps of heather and clambering up, there was a slope of heather-covered ground.
It had been misty and drizzly for the past half and hour or so and despite the cool temperatures, we found it fairly warm due to the steepness of the route but now as we approached the plateau forming Kinder Scout, it was noticeably colder.
We arrived at the path following the edge of the plateau and we paused for a moment so that I could put on my Paramo Summit Hoodie fleece jacket under my Paramo Viento jacket which I had been wearing up to then.
We walked along the edge path which was quite muddy with some parts being wet black peat and some wet sandy eroded gritstone.
The mist which we had met as we approached the height of the plateau now began to rise and views across to the Great Ridge and across to Ladybower Reservoir and Derwent Edge opened out.
We reached the easternmost point of the plateau at Crookstone Knoll and after clambering down a short step, we sat in the shelter of the small rocky promontory and ate lunch as we looked across the Snake road and the obvious huge ancient landslip of Alport Castle opposite.
We knew a path dropped down from Kinder towards Win Hill via Hope Cross and had passed the junction where it started down a little earlier and now we could see it down below. It looked like we wouldn't have to retrace our steps to the path junction but we could make our way down the mossy and heather covered slope below to reach the path further down. So, this is what we did.
The path continued along rough grassy ground to reach a junction with a bridleway near Hope Cross and this was our route back.
We walked along the bridleway, which was a rough vehicle track and had been our intended route in the first place, but in the opposite direction – if we hadn't decided to follow the route up Lady Clough earlier. As we walked along, we could hear the call of a Curlew.
After arriving at the wooden bridge by Edale Youth Hostel, we then just followed the same route back to Edale from here.

Activity Group at Edale Youth Hostel

Karen in Lady Clough

Sign Post and older Guide Stoop

Guide Stoop

Edale Church

Three Shires Head from Wildboarclough

Today was quiet with very few others around, probably because it was supposed to be wet but as it happened, it didn't rain too much in the end.

One of the routes to the Panniers Pool at Three Shires Head is to start at the small village of Wildboarclogh and after leaving the car at an old quarry by the side of the road by a bridge. We followed the road heading north for a kilometre or so, as far as the farm at Clough House.

We followed the public footpath across a field where we were joined by a young sheepdog who seemed pleased to meet us.

Next we followed the signposted route through the farmyard where another pair of dogs were chained while their mate was free to run around and follow us, which he did as we crossed a road and then went through a gate onto a rough vehicle track and a ford with a footbridge. The dog found a sheep nearby and decided to try and round the sheep up. The sheep ran over to us and we tried to shoo the dog away, but he was having none of it and after we crossed the bridge and went through a field gate onto the continuing rough track, I looked back and I saw the sheep was standing there looking at the dos who was sitting looking at the sheep presumably waiting for it to move again so that it could do more rounding up.

We followed the track as it passed below a small cottage marked as Cumberland Cottage on the map, which it turns out, is a Scout run bunkhouse.

The track soon arrived at a junction and continued to the right passing above a small waterfall while a footpath turned to the left following a small brook. We reached a small ruined building of which only the bottom section of the walls were left and we sat here sheltering from the cold wind to have a hot drink.

After this, we continued to the top of the small valley where the route follows the moorland as it rises to meet the track leading south-east from the Cat and Fiddle pub.

We followed this track as far as the A54 where we crossed over to the other side and then over a fence style overlooking the old quarries and mine-workings of Danebower Quarries.

We chose the option of following a path which wends its way down to the small stream which we then crossed and then made our way through the quarry remains which reminded me of walking in parts of Snowdonia.

There is a sort of track following a drystone-wall southwards as far as a metal field gate with a smaller gate in it so that you can get through without having to open the large gate.

Now the path led down over boggy ground to reach the rocky path leading along a stream to soon arrive at Panniers Pool at Three Shires Head.

We sat in a small alcove near the pool to shelter from the cold wind where we ate our lunch and noticed several fresh stalks of red roses floating in the pool, presumably thrown in by someone as some sort of memorial.

After lunch, we crossed over the old pack-horse bridge and then followed the continuing rocky track to the left which we followed to a gate onto a small road.

The route continued on the other side of the road by a farmhouse through a gate onto more moorland. We were glad of several small wooden walkways over some very boggy ground and after passing a small well-preserved stone barn, we crossed the A54 again and again crossed several more wooden walkways and then some boggy sections to arrive at a short rocky track descending to the minor road we had driven along earlier into Wildboarclough.

We walked down the road passing a nice stone church and two very nice houses and crossed a road bridge with a plaque commemorating the rebuilding of the bridge after a flood.

This brought us back to our starting point.

The track passing Cumberland Cottage

Lunch spot

Dropping down to Danebower Quarries

Crossing the stream in the quarry

Pack-horse bridge over Pannier Pool