Another walk from "Day Walks in the Peak District", and a complement to the walk that we did on May 4th.The walk starts from the Hathersage car park and rejoins familiar territory at the Leadmill Bridge, where there's a short overlap with the May walk.
Inscription on Leadmill Bridge
On reaching Hazelford Hall, the two routes diverge and this time we went more or less directly up to the Sir William Hill Road. Rather than following the public road, we used the byway to skirt Bretton Moor and stopped for light refreshments (including crisps!) at The Barrel Inn at Bretton. From there, we followed the (currently closed to traffic) road across Hucklow Edge- easy walking, and very quiet. It was clear why the road was closed- there were landslips to its south and the road itself had collapsed at its western end, although not to the extent of the Mam Tor road!
On nearing the Gliding Club, the route took a welcome break from tarmac, cutting across a couple of gullies and passing a sad-looking building.
Off the road and onto paths
We were crossing the head of the valley that the Bretton Brook runs through; the southern side looked steep and appeared to have many landslips!
Above the Bretton Brook valley, with landslips, sheep and hawthorn blossom
Before starting the traverse of Abney Moor, we took advantage of a well-placed bench to have our lunch.
A perfect lunch spot
On crossing Abney Moor, we passed a field of horses- Jacinta stopped for a chat with one.
Deep in conversation
On starting our descent back to Hathersage, we could spot familiar landmarks- Win Hill, Ladybower Reservoir and Bamford Edge, amongst others.
Win Hill, Ladybower and Bamford Edge in the distance
The way down to Hathersage started with a steep descent towards Offerton Hall.
At the start of the descent to Offerton Hall
An enhancement to any walk is seeing any unusual livestock. This time, it was a couple of very impressive hogs.
Impressive hogs
Rather than follow the rather convoluted instructions to get back to Leadmill Bridge, we made straight for the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, running beside the river- very cool and pleasant.
Moscar, Stanage and Ughill It was somewhat fitting that we headed out on Boxing Day to do a walk that we started the year with on January 2nd. We parked near Moscar Lodge and walked up to Stanage End. The day was (miraculously) dry and the views good, but the view of The Great Ridge and Kinder were not as good as on the second- the photo from the 2nd January is the background to this year's blog... this is how it looked on 26th December! Year-end view of The Great Ridge and Kinder At the Stanage Pole we enjoyed the last of Olivia's shortbread and then ambled down to Redmires Reservoir. It was busy there, with lots of dog walkers out for a stroll. We headed across rough moorland to come to the Sheffield road, then we struck out across the fields, heading for the bench below Crawshaw Lodge where we stopped for lunch. From here, we hardly passed any more walkers; the walk went across the fields towards Ughill Moor, passing Crawshaw Farm and a very large and intimidating dog. It w...
Castleton's Hollow Country (The description is from the Bradwell's guidebook walk title!) We fancied doing a walk from Castleton so we chose this one from Bradwell's "Longer Walks in the Peak District". It certainly proved to be longer, as in the book it is scheduled to be 8¾ miles and we ended up doing 11½ and descending into Castleton in the semi-darkness! The walk started with a pleasant walk up Caveday, below Peveril Castle. Cavedale and Peveril Castle At the top, we passed the grassed-over diggins at Oxlow Rake- old lead mines- making our way down to the tiny hamlet of Old Dam. From there, the walk went up Eldon Lane past Sweetknoll Farm with two adorable donkeys. Jacinta communes with adorable donkey We decided to go to have a look at Eldon Hole- classed as "one of the seven wonders of the peak" in the 1600s. Eldon Hole- it goes down a long way- honest! There was a lovely lunch spot just below the fencing around Eldon Hole where we ate and admired...
Shining Tor and Thursbitch Our last walk of 2023 was not very ambitious on account of the weather. We went up to Shining Tor as usual- battling into the wind; the cloud was low and just grazing the top of Shining Tor. Shining Tor with its head in the clouds After a very short break at the top, instead of just reversing the walk, we went down into the valley and visited Thursbitch for the first time this year. Clouds blowing in from Shining Tor towards Cats Tor The ruins of Thursbitch We saw no one except for some (hopeful) sheep who wrongly assumed that we might be bearing food. Optimistic sheep Persistently optimistic sheep The only downside to this really nice walk is the somewhat boring plod up the road from the end of the drive to Howlersknowl up to the car park at Pym Chair and the welcome sight of the car. It was then home for lunch. An occasionally cold and occasionally wet outing of 4.6 miles with 320m ascent but well worth doing nonetheless.
