Kinder Scout, done wrong and done right

Saturday 23rd July and Saturday 10th September 2022

Back in July the men in my church got together for a walk in the Peak District, which I had been asked to lead and, together with the organiser of the event, we decided on Kinder Scout, mainly because five years earlier the guys had walked up Mam Tor, on the southern edge of Edale and it seemed appropriate to do the hill on the other side. A quick search on the internet revealed a walk that seemed the best route, but it felt to me as if things quickly went wrong with the walk. Firstly, people were late getting to the car park in Edale and the slowest of all was the organiser, who was almost an hour late, so for me the walk had already started badly and the problems just kept on mounting. I was so frustrated with the problems on this walk that I did the walk again, in September, with a colleague from work and we got to Edale significantly earlier than the guys from my church could manage. The route started at the Old Nags Head in Grindsbrook Booth, which is also the starting point of the Pennine Way, up the road before crossing the delightful, wooded valley of Grinds Brook and through farmland past some sheep. Already, we had great views towards the hills and the gritstone edge that looked enticing but we ignored the paths that head straight up and kept on the clear path that follows the stream up the valley. At this point in July the sun was shining, but that would not last, and in September the clouds were so low you couldn’t even see the edge, but that also would not last.

Slowly, we made our way up Grindsbrook Clough on a very rough and stony path that my colleague and I had no problems with, but some of the guys from church struggled because of age and injury. This was the route that I took on my first ever walk up Kinder Scout, back in 1998, but subsequently I have always approached the hill from the north so I had forgotten what this path was like. We had billed the walk as being tough and challenging, but this failed to deter several people who really shouldn’t have been on the walk. They had to stop many times during the ascent so it took us a long time to get up the valley, and since it was already twelve by the time we finally managed to reach the top, we stopped to have our lunch during which it started to rain. My colleague and I did not stop for long at that point as we soon made our way along the flagstones that mark the path around the Kinder Plateau while the weather gradually improved, but a couple of months earlier it continued to rain. At the top of Crowden Brook, the prescribed route leaves the rock-strewn edge and crosses the featureless plateau, but I did not want to attempt that in poor weather as navigation is difficult at the best of times, so I decided that I would keep the guys beside the southern edge of the plateau past the weathered rocks of Crowden Tower and the Wool Packs.

In better weather, my colleague and I headed off across the plateau following a path beside a dry channel, but soon the path became faint and with many paths branching off route selection was tricky. Coming towards us were two guys who swore to us that we were heading in the wrong direction, back towards Crowden Clough, and they would not be persuaded even when I pointed out that Mam Tor could still be seen behind us, on the horizon. In the end, they headed off in the direction they thought was correct and I continued in the direction we had been going, but I was constantly checking our position on the O.S. Maps app. The ground was now very wet with little or no path to follow, and we soon got wet feet and trousers while in the middle of a plateau with no sign in any direction of anything but the featureless moor. With careful consultation of the O.S. Map we eventually found a stream that would eventually become the River Kinder and so we followed that and eventually reached the Kinder Gates, which is a grand name for nothing more than a collection of rocks. Soon after passing the Kinder Gates we saw that the two guys who thought we were going in the wrong direction had realised their own error and were now following us. When they caught up they apologised and I replied that it is very easy to get lost on the Kinder Plateau, which justifies my decision to avoid it with the guys from church.

Eventually we reached the waterfall known as the Kinder Downfall and by this time the sun had come out and was greeting us with fabulous views west towards Manchester, so we stopped within sight of the trickle going over the waterfall and had our lunch. After eating we set off along the Pennine Way beside the western edge of the Kinder Plateau with gorgeous weather that made the walk along the rocky path an absolute delight as it took us over the Red Brook and up to the popular trig point at Kinder Low. After pausing to take a few pictures we continued along the Pennine Way, past Edale Rocks and joined the route that I had taken with the guys from church in July. The path now gradually descended the hillside to the top of the steep descent known as Jacob’s Ladder, but in July I took some of the slowest people onto the bridlepath that avoids it, though it is so rocky I am unsure what benefit it actually gave us. As we headed down into Edale, along a wide track, I stayed with two old gentlemen who were bringing up the rear until we reached the farmyard at Upper Booth where the Pennine Way climbs again to cross the hillside below Broadless-Bank Tor. However, it soon became obvious that the other guys had missed the turning and a quick phone call confirmed that they had stayed on the road.

This was very annoying and showed that I had completely failed to keep everyone together. I told everyone to follow the road back to the car park while I continued on the Pennine Way, ironically, taking the two oldest members of the group over the hill and back down into Grindsbrook Booth. My colleague moaned about this climb, which is a valid point at the end of a tough walk over Kinder Scout, though we were rewarded with fantastic views up and down Edale before descending slowly down to Grindsbrook Booth. I am glad that I did the walk again as I felt that the walk in July had been a long stream of problems from the delayed start, the slow progress, the bad weather and then finally everyone going the wrong way. The walk with my colleague was much better with improving weather that showed off the walk and it was a pity that we didn’t have that weather for the guys from church. However, that walk also showed how a walk over Kinder Scout can easily be done wrong as navigation across the plateau is notoriously difficult as those two guys we encountered up there discovered.

The Soar Valley Meadows

Saturday 9th July 2022

The River Soar drains most of Leicestershire and runs through the city of Leicester north into a floodplain rich in meadows, many now nature reserves, and are a fabulous sight in the summer so I was keen to explore them. I have walked from the town of Loughborough, in the north of the county, into the city on several occasions, some of them, including in 2015, by following the River Soar all the way past these meadows, but I had never done the walk in the other direction, from the city, so last summer I thought I’d take advantage of the hot, sunny weather to do a walk through the Soar Valley floodplain. The hot weather last summer soon put a stop to my walking as it became too hot to walk, but this walk was right at the beginning of the heatwave and, although it became rather too hot later in the day, it didn’t stop me doing this mammoth walk. I started from Leicester railway station, heading through the centre of the city to the canal that skirts around Abbey Park. Instead of entering the park, I walked along the towpath and already I was on an idyllic stretch of canal with thick tree cover and high buildings to my left, including the tall Wolsey Chimney that is all that remains of the once dominant textile industry in Leicester. Soon after the River Soar joined the canal, the first of the meadows appeared to my left as a wide grassy plain with a pond not far from the river.

This is Ellis Meadows, which was recently created as part of a flood alleviation scheme and already has extensive areas of wildflowers, mainly knapweed at this time of the year. After a quick walk around the meadow I returned to the river and continued downstream, over the old Belgrave Bridge and into Little Mead. This stretch of the river was marred by construction sounds but gloriously overgrown and was a good place to walk. Giant bindweed and great willowherb could be seen by the river while later was the unmistakeable whiff of invasive balsam. After passing under Watermead Bridge I entered the vast Watermead Country Park with its twelve lakes and smaller ponds and was quite a maze for me navigate through. I wandered around for a while, stopping off on a mound that commanded views across part of the park, before seeing a sign for the Watermead Memorial Walk, which was recently constructed to remember those who died in the coronavirus pandemic. This seemed a great idea and I followed the line of trees but soon lost trace of the route so I returned to the canal and followed that to try and keep heading north. At a sign for Meadow Lane Car Park I left the canal, where it turns east, so I could keep north, ignoring the car park, until eventually I came upon Wanlip Meadows, which is a small nature reserve that is mainly grassland with plenty of dock plants scattered around and the accompanying chirp of insects.

Back in the park, I continued to meander through and eventually reached the canal again which I followed out of the park. The views across the lakes in the park were great but it was rather busy so I didn’t want to stop. While walking along the towpath I could hear a constant noise of insects from the fields alongside and while many of those meadows seemed to be rich in wildflowers unfortunately there was no access. Later I left the canal to cross over to Cossington Meadows Nature Reserve where I stopped to have my lunch and rest from the heat that was now building up. When I resumed my walk across the reserve I was frustrated at not being able to see much as I walked along wide, stony tracks between high hedges. However, after a crossing the views seemed to open out but I had actually gone the wrong way and soon the houses of Sileby came into view and I had to turn back. After taking the correct turning at the crossing I returned to the river and continued my exhausting trek north, but soon I came away again to explore Mountsorrel Meadows. This was a fabulous area, full of flowers, including willowherb, giant hemlock, thistles and nettles, and was an interesting area to explore, but far too small and soon I was back beside the river continuing my trek north. Unfortunately there were no more meadows for me to see, so I just kept on going beside the river, though still with some good vegetation to decorate the scenery despite now walking on grazed grass.

There was a lot of activity on the river as I passed through Barrow-upon-Soar where the towpath is not easy to follow, but after negotiating through the maze and out the other side I had a blissful walk through the oppressive heat all the way to Loughborough. There is another large meadow on the northern edge of the town, but it was now too hot to walk anywhere so I came off the canal to visit the local GO Outdoors store and eventually walked to the railway station where I caught a train back home. Once the heat had begun to kick in, around noon, it was too hot to do much walking and it was surprising how quickly I started to become tired. It was great to see the wildflowers in the meadows and beside the river, but it was too variable and failed to compensate for the heat.

Looking for bluebells in the Charnwood Forest

Saturday 30th April and Saturday 14th May 2022

I love bluebells. I love to see these delicate blue flowers each spring as they cover the floors of ancient woodland, so over the years I have gone to many places to see them. Last year I went to the Churnet Valley in Staffordshire, just outside the Peak District and there I saw fabulous displays of bluebells. However, I don’t need to go far to see bluebells as the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire has tremendous displays at the end of April or the beginning of May that can more than satisfy. I make a date, every May Day weekend, to do a walk around the Charnwood Forest so I can take in the display of bluebells and last year I was fortunate to have good weather which afforded me with great pictures of this most delightful flower. The route I take is always the same and is one that I have taken many times before, several times every year to keep up my hill walking fitness and was described on this blog back in 2015, so I will concentrate now on the pictures rather than the walk.

When I entered Swithland Wood, I veered left off my usual route and into Stocking Wood even though I had not explored this corner of the woods before and soon I found an abundant display of bluebells. I was surprised by how good the bluebells were in this area and immediately started taking loads of pictures. There are usually more bluebells in the southern end of Swithland Wood, but they couldn’t compete with those in Stocking Wood. No more bluebells were seen on my walk until, after passing through Bradgate Park, beside John’s Lee Wood, which has great displays, but only of what can be seen from the footpath as there is no public access in the wood. That was also the case further along my walk where my path ran alongside Ulverscroft Wood which always has a stunning display of bluebells at this time of the year, but with no public access. Further on, and in Poultney Wood, it wasn’t the bluebells that I was now taking pictures of, but wood anemones, which were growing beside the Ulverscroft Brook.

After passing over Beacon Hill, I headed down a permissive path towards the Wood Brook valley, entering a wood with stunning displays of bluebells that again prompted me to take many pictures including while lying on the ground to get a close up of these wonderful flowers. I love a close up picture of bluebells because if you take a picture while standing up the bluebells seem to merge into a blue carpet, but when you get down to the level of the flower then you can begin to appreciate the delicate shape of the flower.

The best displays of bluebells on this walk are usually to be found in the Out Woods, but last year the sun had gone in when I entered the woods, so the carpets of bluebells were not being seen at their best. Eventually, however, the sun did come out and I took advantage of it to take some magical pictures of the swathes of bluebells that can be seen.

Two weeks later I was still not satisfied, so I went elsewhere in the Charnwood Forest to look for bluebells and to Burroughs Wood where a sea of bluebells can be seen in the spring. However, the season was now coming to an end and the bluebells in Burroughs Wood always seem to go to seed earlier than in other places in the Charnwood Forest. I was disappointed, but somewhat pacified by displays of stitchwort and there were still some bluebells that hadn’t started to go to seed yet. Moving on, I continued to look for bluebells in little corners that I remembered from previous years and eventually made my way onto the National Forest Way, following that into Martinshaw Wood, but the displays there were not great, though at least the sun had now come out. 

After crossing the A50 dual carriageway, I entered Lady Hay Wood, on the outskirts of Groby, where I found an extensive covering of bluebells that more than delighted me. I have previously enthused about the bluebells here and I knew that they are usually late, so would still be at their peak while those in Burroughs Wood had gone to seed. There is an opening in the wood that is covered in bluebells at this time of the year and I have taken fabulous pictures there before and I was able to lie flat on the ground and take more pictures at flower level of the tremendous display.

Hunting around revealed more bluebells that almost had me salivating over the stunning displays, until finally I turned around and headed back to the car park beside Burroughs Wood. The following Saturday I headed up to Scotland and there I found more bluebells in the wood behind Abbey Craig and the Wallace Monument, and that was the last time I saw bluebells in 2022, but soon bluebells will again be on display in woodlands across Britain and again I will be doing everything I can to see these amazing flowers in their woodland setting.

Looking for bluebells in the Churnet Valley

Saturday 7th May 2022

After my delight at seeing many wild flowers in April last year in the Churnet Valley, I had to go back the following month to see what I could now see and especially to look for bluebells which can often be seen at this time of the year in England blanketing the floors of ancient woodland. Rather than copying my walk of the month before, this time I took a different route that would take in the best parts of the previous walk and also introduce new areas. To start, this time I parked in Oakamoor and set off south down the road through gorgeous woodland resplendent in their fresh, green foliage on trees that just a month earlier had been bare. At a footpath sign I climbed steeply up a heavily eroded path soon emerging above the trees to stunning views across the valley, basking in the morning sunshine. The path split many times and guessing which way I ought to go, I passed young foxglove flowers before reaching a wall and a path that began to descend again. I had clearly taken the wrong path so I turned around and followed the wall through a carpet of colourful flowers that included red campion, but not the bluebells that I was looking, until eventually I found the correct path and took that across the top of the hill and down to the road through Stoney Dale. I was now on the route of the Staffordshire Way and I followed this for the next couple of hours passing through Sutton’s Wood and Hawksmoor Wood before dropping down to the bottom of the valley beside the River Churnet.

There, beside the river bank, I found beautiful displays of the white flowers of stitchwort and not long after I came across a small collection of bluebells, just off the path. These were a great foretaste of what was to come, but first I needed to climb out of the valley and pass through the villages of Kingsley Holt and Kingsley. I had previously taken this path in January, but it was now a much more enjoyable walk in the warm spring weather and the miles soon passed by and eventually I reached the edge of Consall Nature Park. Soon I was at a great vantage point that looks out across the wood where previously, including the month before, the weather was overcast and the trees brown, bare of leaves, but now the view across a sea of lush, green trees shone in the sunlight. At the bottom of the valley I found swathes of stitchwort and finally, after a bit of hunting, I came across the bluebells that I had been looking for. After admiring the fabulous displays in Consall Wood, I made my out of the park, eager to see what was now in the highly-recommended Crowgutter Wood. Initially the dominant plant was ramsons, wild garlic and forget-me-nots, which were producing a fabulous display, but they were not bluebells. I was quite happy with the sweet smelling ramsons and took many photos of them, though I was mystified by the large leaves growing in amongst them.

The gorgeous, woodland scenery continued, though with only small banks of bluebells visible, I also saw red campion and cow parsley, until finally bluebells began to appear, near the top of the wood. After the early tease, the blue flowers were now in great swathes across the woodland floor and were more than enough to satisfy me as I took many pictures while slowly climbing the path and waiting for the sun to come back out from behind a cloud. When I could finally tear myself away from the bluebells, I came onto a road and turned right to walk along the quiet lane for a while before taking a path on the right that crossed several fields before passing Booth’s Hall and descending into Booth’s Wood. A month before, this small valley had been filled with wildflowers and I was eager to see what it was like now and it didn’t disappoint as it was filled with bluebells, basking the sunshine that had been hiding from me earlier. Stitchwort also added to the wondrous sight in this magical dell so it was again with reluctance that I eventually climbed through fallen branches out onto grassy fields that were in stark contrast to the abundant wilderness in Booth’s Wood. A dull walk took me through these fields, now reversing my steps of a month ago, to re-enter Moseymoor Wood and around the closed path near the mouth of a pond in the valley.

More bluebells accompanied me as I made my way through Whieldon's Wood, but they couldn’t compare with what had come earlier in the walk. On climbing out of the valley and into the village of Foxt, I headed down to cross the Shirley Brook and up to a dismantled tramway. By careful examination of my map I made my way towards Cotton Dell, though frustratingly not at the bottom of the valley, but on a track crossed the western slopes that I had previously walked along on my first visit to the Churnet Valley just six months before. When I could finally descend into the valley I discovered bluebells covering a grass bank, which compensated for not finding any at the bottom of the valley. Instead, the valley floor was decorated by a large, green leaved plant that I couldn’t identify, but this failed to detract from a delightful end to a wonderful walk through gorgeous woodland past many different wildflowers, and especially bluebells. I love to seek out this wonderful woodland flower every spring, wherever I can find it and the Churnet Valley had not failed to satisfy me.

Looking for woodland flowers in the Churnet Valley

Saturday 2nd April 2022

Spring is my favourite time of the year for walking as woodlands then are decorated with a most wondrous display of flowers that always delights me and drives me to get out for as many walks as possible to see the fabulous displays. During the winter of 2021 to 2022 I visited the Churnet Valley in Staffordshire many times, but I was yet to see the woodland at its best, so at the beginning of April, four weeks since I was last in the area, I headed back to the Churnet Valley and parked at Froghall Wharf. Immediately, while still in the car park, I could see many woodland flowers, particularly the white flowers of wood anemones and as I explored up the valley of the Shirley Brook, I came upon many more. I was ecstatic at the wild scenery all around me with the strong smelling green leaves of wild garlic mixing with the wood anemones under the bare trees. All too soon, I came across a public footpath which I took out of the valley to stunning views of the Churnet Valley across the trees with the open fields beyond. On reaching a road I turned right and at a footpath sign I turned left to cross grassy fields and steadily descend until on reaching the edge of Whieldon's Wood I dropped steeply down to the bottom of the valley. The woodland floor was covered in plants and even though few were actually in flower it was still a delight to walk through a wild, green wonderland with the sun shining overhead and the sound of the water in the stream at my feet.

Before long I came across a sign that proclaimed that this path was closed due to a landslide, which I did know about and wondered why I had not seen a notice earlier. Undeterred I ignored the sign and continued along the path through the valley until I reached a lake where immediately downstream the landslide could clearly be seen. The path passes close to the top of the landslide, which is why it has been closed, so I turned away from there and followed the marks of others who had avoided the landslide, climbing steeply through the trees beside the lake up to the main path through the valley in Moseymoor Wood. I first encountered these closed signs the previous autumn so it was frustrating to discover that in the six months since nothing had been done to make the path safe. Heading south through the wood I passed a spread of the exotic-looking stalks of butterbur before reaching the end of the path not far from Froghall Wharf, where I had started. Despite maps suggesting that it is possible to return to the car park from where I was, I could not see any way, so instead I took a narrow, easily missed, path that climbs up through the woodland to a road. After a spell of walking beside the road and through many grassy fields I came to the edge of Booth’s Wood in a side valley of the River Churnet.

This is an amazing place, totally given over to nature, where even the path is secondary as fallen branches made descending quite an obstacle course. Carefully, I made my way down trying not to damage any of the plants on my way until finally I reached the bottom and could behold the wondrous display of celandines and wood anemones that filled the area while infant bluebells promised more colour later in the season. After a long time spent absorbing the sight, I slowly made my way up the opposite bank where a clear path led me through swathes of the yellow flowers of celandine until eventually I tore myself away and crossed a stile into more dull, grassy fields. After passing Booth’s Hall and Glenwood House I descended through woodland into the Churnet Valley where I followed the canal for a short spell until just after passing the Black Lion Inn I took a path that climbs out of the valley and up the Devil’s Staircase. Sadly this is simply a set of concrete steps and even the surrounding vegetation lacked interest as it was mostly the unattractive dog’s mercury. My interest was revived at the top of the path when it crossed the Collyhole Brook and wood anemones decorated the far bank.

After lunch I took a path that descends back into the Churnet Valley on the eastern bank through Crowgutter Wood and after hearing many reports about this nature reserve I had been looking forward to walking through it, but I was disappointed. I was too early for bluebells and there seemed little else besides dog’s mercury, while an old dam was difficult to get close to and the path was very muddy. Eventually I reached the bottom of the path, back beside the canal and after retracing my steps I entered Consall Nature Park passing gorgeous scenes of marsh marigolds and butterbur before climbing Far Kingsley Banks to a fantastic viewpoint that I had discovered back in January when I first visited the park. After admiring the view again I descended to the stream where wood anemones were again the dominant flower. From the bottom of the valley I walked along the wide track deeper into the park, though with little idea of what route I was going to take. Eventually I left the main path and climbed through tremendous displays of wild flowers that included the young plants of bluebell and promised much in the coming weeks. The path took me up out of Consall Wood and onto dull, grassy fields that seemed like a flat, monoculture after the wonders that I had just experienced on this walk. Monotonously I made my way across these fields past the village of Kingsley and down into the Churnet Valley where I followed the Caldon Canal back to Froghall Wharf. This was a fabulous, wondrous walk, but I knew I would have to return soon as the spring displays evolved and bluebells came into flower.