Lathkill Dale

Saturday 25th March 2017

Once a week, I write this blog describing a walk that I have done recently during my holidays, however since these holidays are all concentrated in the spring and summer by the time I’m getting towards the end of the year I don’t have any walks left to put on the blog. Fortunately my holidays are not the only walking that I do as a bit of good weather on a Saturday is all the incentive I need to grab my rucksack and head out for a walk. At the start of spring this year just such conditions brought me out to a small car park in the Peak District beside the High Peak Trail, which is a trail that follows the course of the old Cromford and High Peak Railway. Heading north and passing the Friden brickworks I was striding confidently and briskly along the track eating up the miles. It was great to be walking in the Peak District again and after the long winter finally be able to really stretch my legs again with the great Peak District views before me of rolling hills, dry stone walls and blue skies. The sun was shining brightly even though at this early hour it was still rather cold. Just after passing the site of Hurdlow station I finally came off the old railway line and headed across a couple of fields, over the Buxton Road and along the Hutmoor Butts track towards the village of Monyash.

Passing just to the north of the village I entered Bagshaw Dale at the western tip of Lathkill Dale. I have walked through Lathkill Dale many times going back many years and it has held special memories for me over all those years. I felt that I hadn’t been through Lathkill Dale for quite a while so I was eager to renew my acquaintance with this extra special valley by walking the entire length from start to finish. I don’t think I’ve ever done the western tip before as I usually turn off before reaching the end, which is a shame as it is an amazing place. The limestone walls close in spectacularly, which this early in the year created a dark and very cold environment with ice in amongst the boulders that littered the bottom of the valley. There was an eerie and claustrophobic feeling between the narrow rocks walls, but the valley soon opened up again though still with a rough, rocky surface underfoot as I slowly made my way down the valley until I eventually reached the point where the river comes out of the rock face on the side of the valley.

At this time of the year the water was overflowing the sides and flooding the bottom of the valley pouring over the grassy floor and often encroaching onto the footpath, but I did not find this much of a problem for me. Celandines decorated the grasslands adding a delightful sparkle to the surroundings that are dominated by limestone. On reaching the junction with Cales Dale the number of people increased significantly and taking advantage of this attractive location I stopped to have my lunch. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful in the sunny weather and brought to mind many previous visits to this location since I was a child. Beyond this point the valley plunges into woodland and the path improves so that I was now able to simply enjoy the surroundings under leafless trees and with many delicious wild flowers at my feet. I had a wonderful walk through the woods at the bottom of this spectacular narrow valley beside crystal clear waters in lovely sunshine. Many other people were also walking through the valley and justifiably so as Lathkill Dale is one of the best limestone valleys in the country.

After passing the Over Haddon road the valley opens out with a series of weirs created to aid with fishing and there were many people to be seen engaged in this activity. My walking was now even more sedate as the river slowly turns to the south until it reaches Conskbury Bridge where the delights sadly end. The valley has now broadened with relatively gentle gradients on the western slopes of the river and this is where the footpath now passes until it reaches the road at Alport. Now I turned away from the River Lathkill and changed my plans as my progress through Lathkill Dale had been so slow I didn’t have time for my planned, though possibly overoptimistic, excursion onto Stanton Moor. Whenever I have done a walk through Lathkill Dale in the past I have almost always also included a walk through the neighbouring smaller valley of Bradford Dale and I could not resist the temptation to once again pass through this stunning valley that is enclosed by trees with several old weirs along its length that add to the beauty of the surroundings.

Turning off the main path at the western end of the valley I followed the stream through open farmland and into a narrow wooded ravine, signposted as Rusden Wood, which was covered in celandines and wood anemones with the slender stream winding a course through the idyllic scene. This was a gorgeous, spellbinding place, but I didn’t know how I had got there, even though it was totally enthralling. I had been trying to head towards the end of Gratton Dale, but eventually I realised that I had turned west when I had intended on going east and so I was now nowhere near Dale End. Rather than going out of my way to head towards Gratton Dale I decided to leave that valley for another day and took a track over Gratton Moor and down into Long Dale not far from my car. The weather by this time was really warm and it had been sunny all day which made for excellent conditions to walk and I had made the most of them with an excellent walk in the fabulous Peak District.