More Early Walks in the Peak District, part two

I am continuing to look back on the walks I did when I was just starting out on my walking adventures, all in the Peak District.

Stanage Edge

Saturday 27th March 1999

This was the walk that I had attempted to do the previous summer until I got an early lesson in the extreme weather that can be found while hill-walking, but this walk was in much better weather and consequently it was a delight. I got up early in the morning and caught the train to Hathersage where I started the walk, leaving the town and across the Hood Brook, climbing up through Cliff Wood, which was where I had begun to go so terribly wrong the previous summer. Continuing to climb I eventually reached the road on the edge of the moorland where a short walk along the road brought me to a track that led me up to a disused quarry. This track is now an access point to the Open Access land that encompasses Bamford Edge and the moor, but when this walk was undertaken there wasn’t access to this area so I stuck to the right-of-way that went north from the quarry across Moscar Moor to the northern tip of Stanage Edge. Despite being almost ten years ago I remember this crossing was very wet underfoot and my cheap boots were not successful in keeping my feet dry. On reaching Stanage Edge I ensured that I was at the actual end of the edge where signs of ancient quarrying could be found before I began my trek down the entire length of the edge. The weather was great for this walk and I had a wonderful time passing the trig point at High Neb (458m), the highest point on Stanage Edge. On reaching a bridlepath I dropped off the edge back down to the road and down the hill through farmland back into Hathersage. My thoughts immediately after doing the walk were that I should do that sort of thing more often, and as we shall see I did. However, I did express a doubt that was repeated only last summer: I was frustrated with all the travelling I had to do. Despite this I really enjoyed the walk and it ensured that I would still be walking for pleasure ten years later.

Shining Cliff Wood

Friday 9th April 1999

A little later I did another walk from the “On Foot in the Peak District” book, this time in an area just outside the southern edge of the park. I took a train to Ambergate and walked through Shining Cliff Wood and around farmland near Alderwasley (where there is a famous school). It was a very pleasant and easy walk taken in glorious sunshine, but it left me exhausted at the end of it. The woodland sections at the beginning and the end were nice enough but I don’t remember particularly enjoying the farmland section around Alderwasley. In fact looking at the map and the description of the walk in the guide book I don’t think I did the whole walk and I must have missed out large sections. I remember looking closely at the map at one point and going in a direction that is not indicated in the guide book so my route must have been a lot shorter than the prescribed route, but maybe it was better as I described it as a wonderful walk in my diary.

Nine Ladies Stone Circle

Thursday 15th July 1999

During the first week of my two week summer holiday in 1999 I went to Cornwall with some friends, but the only walking I did there were short and on my own. The following week, despite a strong desire to go for a walk, I still failed to get much walking done; this short walk in the Peak District was my only excursion. I caught a train to Matlock and then since I’d just missed the bus to Bakewell, by mere minutes, I went to plan B. Going to the Peak Railway I caught their Steam Train to Rowsley South (i.e. Northwood) and then walked along the bed of the old railway to Rowsley before taking a track just inside the Peak District that climbed up to Stanton Moor. This small area is littered with burial chambers and other sites dating from the Bronze Age. These include the Nine Ladies Stone Circle and the King Stone which stands some way off. I guess I should have been fascinated by all the ancient debris scattered around the moor but I remember little about it and I made no note about it in my diary besides a mention that I had visited the Nine Ladies Stone Circle and the King Stone before crossing the moor. At the road I cut the walk short and returned down the road back to the Peak Railway station at Darley Dale where I caught the train back to Matlock and then back home.

All in all it was quite an enjoyable day, if a little short. Apparently I was rather concerned about catching the last Peak train back to Matlock at 4 o’clock which was why I curtailed the walk. Also I appear to have had some problems with my watch, whereby I didn't know what the time was. I could have traversed the moor again, with plenty of time to spare, but instead I was left feeling that it was too late to go back now, but that it was an enjoyable walk nevertheless. My frustration during this summer holiday in failing to do any meaningful walking motivated me to ensure that in all my subsequent holidays I would go away for at least a couple of days. This started with my next holiday at the end of August when I visited an area for the first time that would truly begin my experiences in mountain walking: the Black Mountains in Wales.

More early walks in the Peak District

With a lack of new walks while resting my injured ankle I'm going back to giving details of my early walks in the Peak District. As with other walks completed at that time, these were taken from the book "On Foot in the Peak District" by Charles Hurt, published by David & Charles.

The Manifold Valley

Monday 25th May 1998

Before spending my summer holiday in 1998 in the Peak District I did a walk with my Father during the Spring Bank Holiday. This was described in my diary at the time as being a magnificent walk and having walked in this area several times since then, I can quite agree as this is a lovely valley with some quite beautiful sections. We began in the picturesque village of Butterton where we parked near the church before walking down the hill to the brook that runs through the village and at one point actually along the street. At the ford we turned left along a path that follows the Hoo Brook down the shallow valley as it gradually drops down to the tourist attraction of Wettonmill in the Manifold Valley. Following the valley south we walked along a cycle track (the Manifold Way) and was soon marvelling at the river which had been full of water at Wettonmill, but was now bone dry. The River Manifold disappears underground during dry weather and doesn’t reappear for over ten miles. We continued along the trail which at one time had been the course of the Manifold Valley Light Railway; this short-lived route must have been a wonderful train ride as it travelled along the bottom of the valley. Rounding a corner we saw the star attraction of the Manifold Valley: Thor's Cave. (picture by Nick J Adams) This large cave, perched high above the valley, has been a personal demon for many years. A long time ago I visited the Manifold Valley while youth hostelling in the area with a youth group and went up to see Thor’s Cave. While I was up there, some friends and I decided it would be fun to explore a hole in the side of the cave which led out into the wood where we descended steeply back down the hillside. For some reason I chose to slide all the way down the hill on my backside and got myself covered in mud in the process. Ever since, I have had some trepidation with Thor’s Cave, but on this day I managed to exorcise those demons by going up and actually coming back down still standing up! The walk continued on a path opposite Thor’s Cave that climbed steeply out of the valley through a delightful wood up to the village of Grindon and from there we continued across Grindon Moor past the 374m trig point at the top of the moor. The walk ended with a stroll down the hill back into the village of Butterton. This was a great, fun walk that, although short, showed off varying aspects of the Staffordshire Moorlands on the southern edge of the Peak District. After this trip I was eager to return to the Peak District and did so during my July Fortnight holiday. A few years later I attempted to take some friends on this same walk, but they were not as interested in walking as me and chickening out once we got to Wettonmill. I think that walk, more than any other, put me off trying to lead other people on walks because all I got was moaning and complaints the whole time. Hence I now walk alone and rarely with anyone else.

Golden Hill and the Hamps 

Monday 31st August 1998

I returned to the Peak District after my fortnight’s holiday, during another Bank Holiday, once again with my father and this time I also took a friend with us as well. It was a funny little walk as I had deliberately picked an obscure corner of the National Park to walk in to try and get away from the crowds on a Bank Holiday Monday, which did work as we never see anyone else walking in that area. We started from the village of Onecote and climbed over Golden Hill where the ground was, if I recall, quite muddy and up to the top of the 425m hill of the modestly named Elkstone Slope which has a trig point at the top. We returned beside the young River Hamps along farm tracks back to Onecote. This was a curiously unsatisfying walk and I'm not sure why, maybe it was the short distance or the low cloud or maybe the simple fact that it was an unremarkable corner of the Peak District. All we saw were grassy hills and farmland, nothing special, whereas on the walk above we had at least seen Thor's Cave. Maybe I was just being picky when I made those sentiments in my diary ten years ago, but if I had done the walk now I don’t think I would have enjoyed it. At the time I said it was quite enjoyable, it just seemed very quick.

The Lake District while on route to Scotland

Saturday 13th & 20th September 2008

As has been mentioned, my holiday in Scotland last September was plagued by bad weather. It was wet, overcast and there was so much low cloud I didn’t have a view from the top of any of the mountains I climbed. In fact as I look back over the past year it seems like there has been a lot of wet weather during my walks with few that had good weather. After the poor summer I had hoped for an Indian summer in Scotland but it never happened. The poor weather during the summer quickly turned into a wet and miserable autumn. The drive up to Scotland was through increasingly wet weather, especially once I was in Scotland. Before I got there, however, I stopped off in the Lake District for a walk just as I had done the year before. This year, though, was rather different as I had my parents in the car with me. When they expressed an interest in visiting Scotland I suggested they go the same week as me and we share petrol costs. This meant I would not be able to do a strenuous walk as I would otherwise have done as my parents are not experienced walkers, especially my Mother. I decided that I would take them up Loughrigg Fell, a relatively easy hill (only 1100 feet high) that had, in fact, been the first hill in the Lake District that I’d gone up. Loughrigg Fell has some stunning views and I was planning on showing off some of these sights to my parents who had never been to the Lake District before.

My plans however were scuppered by two things: firstly the weather, which, although it wasn’t raining at that point, it was poor with very low cloud, and secondly, and more importantly, the traffic. Between Windermere and Ambleside we came across a long traffic jam that seemed very slow moving. With the prospect of being stuck in this for hours I turned the car around and headed over the Kirkstone Pass. The cloud was so low we were soon enveloped as I drove higher than we would ever have walked if we’d gone up Loughrigg Fell. At 1489 feet the pass is the highest road in the Lake District but I didn’t stop there as I drove down into Patterdale and around Ullswater. I had decided that the best place to take my parents for a walk in the Lake District would be where I’d walked while coming back from Scotland last year: Aira Force. After parking in the National Trust car park we walked along the path beside the river slowly climbing up the hillside until we reached the spectacular waterfall of Aira Force. There was considerably more water passing over the waterfall into the narrow ravine than I saw last year, proof that the summer had been very wet.  Continuing up the river I was determined to reach High Force (that is actually my Father standing in the way of the picture), another waterfall further upstream that I hadn’t seen last year. With a lot of encouragement I managed to get my Mother along the wet and muddy paths to the wider and more expansive, higher waterfall. Awed by the sight, I took loads of photos while my parents waited apprehensively on the opposite bank, not wanting to copy my daring crossing of the river. With my goal satisfied we returned to the car park, taking a path that crossed the lower slopes of Gowbarrow Fell; the moorland was a delightful contrast to the woodland paths beside the river, though markedly muddier, much to my Mother’s consternation. The weather during our short walk was surprisingly clear as the clouds began to lift soon after we started walking. I guess in view of how the weather later developed on this holiday, we were fortunate as the weather soon deteriorated again once we set off again towards Scotland.

On setting off I discovered that I had been a little careless while backing into the parking spot at Aira Force. I must have hit my exhaust on the high curb as there was now a loud noise coming from underneath the car particularly during acceleration. With no opportunity to fix it I had to drive all the way to Fort William from the Lake District with a broken exhaust. I must apologise to everyone in Scotland who was subjected to the terrible noise from my car. I wasn’t able to get it fixed until Tuesday morning by which time I’m sure most of Scotland knew I was there. At the end of the week, with the car fixed, it was time to come back home and once again the Lake District beckoned. When we left Fort William the weather was as poor as ever but as we approached England a sight beheld us that we hadn’t seen all week: the sun. After a week of grey overcast, often wet, skies, once we were back in England the weather was superb with clear blue skies and bright sunshine. Unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of the weather as my ankle was in no fit state for walking (and my parents were defying all common-sense by saying they didn’t want to go for a walk into the hills). Instead we went to Ashness Bridge, a particularly attractive beauty spot that coincidently had been on a painting in the Bed & Breakfast that my parents had stayed at. It was really frustrating for me to be in the Lake District in such perfect weather and yet not go for a walk. While we were there, my father asked me whether I preferred walking in the Lake District or Scotland, and the truth is that the Lake District wins every time. I like walking in Scotland, I have done some absolutely fabulous walks there over the years, but in the long run they don’t have the attraction of the Lake District. Despite having been to the Lake District many times over the years I still find myself going back time and time again. It is a place that one can love being in as it’s refreshing, relaxing and enjoyable while Scotland is often difficult, challenging and tough. I really enjoy going to Scotland, but I love going to the Lake District.