I’ve been wanting to venture further afield of late in my prep for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks (the moors around me are great but variety and all that..) and I was thinking north yorkshire or south lakes or maybe the peak district, which is on my doorstep.
Turns out a new client I’ve been working with is a walker and he recommended the ridge circular (taking in Mam Tor) above Castleton, down in Derbyshire. So that was that, the peak district. I’ve been to the area a few times over the years and really like it – so on Saturday son Joe and I headed that way.
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The route we used was the one mentioned here in the Walking Englishman’s blog/site. The route map on the site is a bit loose (as in doesn’t overlay exact path locations), so I loaded the helpfully supplied gpx file into Viewranger and used the phone app on the day rather than rely on the printed map I took as a backup. That isn’t a criticism of the info provided on the site by the way, (lots of great walks on there) but I wanted a more accurate route ‘sense checker’; as some of the paths go through farms and I didn’t want to stray off track too much.
No Brodie on this walk unfortunately. I was a conflicted man – she would have loved the walk but she doesn’t travel too far in cars without getting all gippy. And it was forecast to be a hot, muggy day (which it was indeed, despite the cloud cover for most of it). And she’s slowing down a bit of late and the combo of feeling poorly after the drive and then 5 hours or so in the sun meant, reluctantly, she stayed at home. So it was just Joe and I – but I’ve promised her a long local moors walk this week if time allows.
The start and end of the walk is Hope, just past Castleton, lovely little village.
The whole hike was about four and half hours, with some great views along the way. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the trip. What you don’t get a sense of so much in the photos is that (being a weekend) Mam Tor itself was pretty busy, lots of families having picnics etc. Which was nice to see but I realised I do prefer more remote jaunts on the whole 🙂
After returning to Hope we had a quick snack break at The Blue Apple cafe. The Bakewell Pudding – not Tart, as was explained nicely to me – was fantastic. And a pot of tea that went on for ages, excellent. I think I had a net calorie gain after that pud 🙂
Then we headed home with a quick detour (I had a geologist in tow) to the Odin Mine, site of an old lead mining / extraction enterprise. Started in Roman times I think but really active in the industrial revolution. It was dark in the wet and slimy cave we entered but we pushed forward to an area that, when illuminated by the flash on my DSLR, was enormous. And a bit spooky.
Also a quick marvel at the slumped and buckled old road below Mam Tor (geology cares nothing for civil engineering) and then we drove up through the impressive limestone scenery out of Castleton and the Hope valley.
A great days walking – recommended.
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- A Great Destination for Ramblers (stravaigerjohn.wordpress.com)
Great trip report, Mark. I’ve done a similar route a couple of times, but starting and finishing at Castleton, returning directly to the start from Lose Hill.
You did the right thing by Brodie, but it’s going to cost – I would say a moorland walk AND a large bone 🙂
I think you are right on the costs front. I took her for an early eve walk at the end of the day yesterday, lovely views from the hill/moors above the house. But she wasn’t buying it, leaving silences for me to fill with promises of a big weekend walk. Guilt is a terrible thing 🙂