Froggat Edge

• Walked: 11th August 2007
• Distance: 20m
• Terrain: various, with ascents to 417m
• Summary: Baslow, Curbadge and Froggat Edges, Derwent Valley, Eyam Moor.
• Time: 10.5 hrs start to finish

As soon as you set off from Baslow towards Froggatt Edge, you start a climb which seems to go on and on. The reward is the beautiful view which opens up around you:


As the route levels out, the land is covered with a blanket of heather, which was an intense pink today.


I think that this stone is called Eagle Stone. Close by is a monument to Wellington.


In front of us is Curbar Edge, which leads to Froggatt Edge. Once on top of the edge, it seems like a great moment to stop for refreshment and some spectacular photos.



After Froggat Edge, there's a lovely walk through some woods, before joining the River Derwent to follow the well-marked Derwent Valley Heritage Trail. The sharp reflections on the water show just how still the air was today. There are some stepping stones marked on the map just before we leave the river, possibly prettier than those at Dovedale, and certainly far less busy .



We'd intended to join Shatton Lane via Lees Farm, using the marked footpath from Westfield up to the radio mast. This was a very muddled part of today's walk. The paths between the river and Lees Farm are badly-marked (or not marked at all) and overgrown. The path goes right through the farmhouse garden, which is something I always find awkward. The planned path up to the mast isn't marked, and wasn't passable. After spending too much time trying that route, we gave up and took the road. It's known as Shatton Lane, and yes, unbelievably.... horses had been by and it had been.


A better route may have been to leave the river earlier and use the path which goes via Offerton Hall.

This was the toughest climb, probably due to the mid-afternoon heat, but once again a good climb pays dividends with some wonderful views. In the middle of this picture is Ladybower Reservoir, the starting point for last week's walk. The light green patch just below the water is the landscaped dam, and up above is Win Hill.


After descending and crossing a ford, a busy point where lots of paths meet, there's another climb back up to the 400m level for more views. I notice that the hills here are known as 'Lows', which seems a bit topsy-turvey, especially the one that's called 'High Low'.



It's a very steep descent down to Eyam, famous for isloating itself when the black death struck. This ensured that the surrounding villages were spared the disease. During the plague, provisions were left by neighbouring villagers at the town's boundary stone, thus avoiding personal contact. Payment was made by leaving coins in the holes in the stone.



The next village is Stoney Middleton, again very pretty. The church has this unusual octagonal shape. The church is dedicated to St Martin, the 'patron saint of cripples' (yes, really). Close by are some roman baths. According to the information board, the water was marketed as being cooler than that at Buxton, and could cure such diseases as rheumatism, and 'too great heat' which is something that I suffered from myself at times today.



It's easy to pick up the Derwent again, for a level walk to the finish. Looking back, you can now see the edges (on the horizon) walked at the start.





The route and stats above were generated using Meander. The profile was generated using Tracklogs.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Win Some, Lose Some

• Walked: 4th August 2007
• Distance: 16m
• Terrain: good flagged paths, ascents to 517m
• Summary: Ladybower Reservoir start / finish. Derwent Valley Heritage Trail, Shatton, Hope, Castleton, the Limestone Way, Mam Tor, Hollins Cross, Lose Hill, Win Hill.
• Time: 8 hrs start to finish

I learned an important lesson today about perseverance. I happened to speak to a friend by phone when I was almost at the top of Lose Hill, and admitted that I didn't have the legs to make my last planned peak.

At the last minute I changed my mind and went for it. It was hard, but the elation that I'd felt last Saturday had been missing -up until the point where I'd nearly made it to the top of the apropriately-named Win Hill. You value something so much more when you've had to put doubts to one side and work hard for it.

I started the walk at Ladybower Reservoir. Severn Trent Water have put a free car park by the dam, with some of the best public toilets I've seen, which is important when you've just done a 2hr drive to get there and are facing an 8hr walk.

The dam is really quite impressive.


For the first couple of miles I followed the Derwent Valley Heritage Trail, which is fairly level, and reminds me of some of my local cycle routes and canal walks. When I noticed a village on the map called Shatton, I had to include it in the walk. Despite its name, it's a very pretty village. There's an Upper Shatton and Shatton Moor.



After Brough, there's a Roman fort. I love these, you can really feel the history around you and under your feet. I assume that the stony bit is the remains of the Roman wall, and that the rusty barbed wire is much more recent.


Hope has this very interesting church in a beautiful setting. I think Dive might confirm that's a broach spire.


After Castleton, came the quite spectacular Cave Dale. This was the first real cimb of the day, and in fact took me up to 400m which was most of the work done for the later peaks.


I picked up a little bit of the Limestone Way here, which to be honest, wasn't as spectacular as It had sounded, that is until Mam Tor came into view.


It was quite busy - there's a car park close by allowing people to just climb the last 60m up some stone steps. It has an unusual stone trig point:


After Mam Tor, the next couple of peaks come into view, with this anti-erosion flagged path which gives the impression of a giant backbone across the landscape. The pimple on the horizon is Win Hill, my planned final peak. It looked so far away!


I was delighted to spot Castleton down below. If you enlarge this picture, Peveril castle is in the middle, and just below it to the left is Cave Dale, which I'd used earlier.


Lose Hill doesn't have a trig point, but does have this little monument. It has compass points engraved on it, along with the names of all the peaks that you can see in the various directions. In the distance of this picture is Win Hill. I had decided by this point that I couldn't manage it, which was disappointing. From Mam Tor to Lose Hill, the peaks are in a line with not much of a dip and climb between them, but getting from Lose Hill to Win Hill meant descending to 170m before climbing back up to 460. I sat here with my map, fending off the sheep which were trying to eat my cake and my rucksack, and picked out a route which would get me back to my car directly and with no more ascents.


However, once down in the valley, I spotted a fingerpost pointing to Win Hill, and the path looked more gentle than I'd imagined earlier and so I couldn't resist going for it! There were about three hours of daylight left, and I had to take a chance that the car park didn't have a lock-up time. I felt that even if I got to the point where I had to rest every few steps, it would be worthwhile.

These are two of my favourite pictures of the day - this is a view back on Lose Hill after starting the climb to Win Hill. The heavy sky makes it look so dramatic.


And this is a great view of the earlier peaks - Mam Tor over to the left, Hollins Cross in the middle and Lose Hill on the right.


This is the point where I really started to feel good. Winhill Pike is just a few minutes away. Despite being alone, I laughed (possibly more from delirium than elation).


The 360 degree view from up here is spectacular. I could see everything I'd done today, plus lots more unexplored Peak District to the north. This snap of the trig point has my starting point, Ladybower Reservoir, down below.

The route and stats above were generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Stanage Edge - It's all too beautiful

• Walked: 28th July 2007
• Distance: 5.5m plus some
• Terrain: good flagged paths, 250m ascent
• Summary: Stanage Edge starting / finishing at Hathersage.
• Time: 4.5 hrs start to finish

For the background to this visit to the Peak District, see yesterday's post.

I'm very lucky to be within easy reach of the Peak District National Park. I found this walk on the Moors for the Future website. I chose it not because of the history, I'm afraid, but because of the ascents / descents and because it promised firm terrain, which is an important consideration after the huge amount of rain we've had.

Hathersage is very pretty town and ideal for starting and finishing. I extended the 5.5 mile walk by a couple of miles, because it was all too beautiful and I didn't want to leave Stanage Edge.

This pretty cottage near the start is Bronte Cottage. I'm really sorry, literature lovers, I love Jane Eyre as much as the next romantic fool, but today I was far more moved by the views than the history! That's Stanage Edge on the horizon.


As I approached the Edge it started to look less like a fairly close dry-stone wall and more like the vast and distant rock formation it is.


If you click to enlarge the photo below and look carefully, you'll see hundreds of folks with ropes clinging onto the vertical surface. Apparently, they come from all over the country to climb here. Fortunately for us walkers there's a path to the top.


Having reached the top of the Edge, this fabulous rock formation was waiting for me. The District is known for its bizarre rock formations weathered out of the soft gritstone.






My ratty old boots are a matter of pride in a place where there's so much pristine gear walking around. However, they're really starting to come apart at the seams now, and no longer hold the water out. If you're a boot manufacturer and would like to donate a pair of Goretex size 8s in return for a review or your logo on this site, then I really am that shallow.


The planned walk leaves the Edge well before its highest point (trig point at 457m) and it was such a fantastic day that I carried on for a bit and planned a different route back to Hathersage.

Thank you to the stranger who took this photo. The sunshine was gorgeous, but it was extremely windy on the Edge, hence the horizontal hair and madly-flapping OS Explorer map in my hand.


Once off the Edge, the moorland heather spreads out like a coloured blanket. Very pretty indeed.


This is Higger Tor. I didn't go up there today, but will try to remember it because It looks as if it might afford a great view over Hathersage Moor.


The purple line shows the planned route (the Hathersage route from Moors for the Future) and the green line is my extra bit:

The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Map image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

She emerged blinking into the daylight

The furthest I've walked during the last four weeks is from the office car park to my desk, which isn't far. I've lost my chance at the 2007 attempt on the Ivanhoe Way now; partly because of a full life and partly because of the monsoon season we've had instead of a summer this year. (Maybe next year!)

I saw a remarkable sight out of my window this afternoon - sunshine. That, coupled with my discovery of this site (during the course of my work, I hasten to add) filled me with the strong urge to be in the Peak District with my boots on.

My 6-miler around Ticknall seemed perfect for stretching the legs and shaking away the cobwebs ahead of visiting the Peaks tomorrow, so I emerged blinking into the sunlight and IT FELT GOOD!!!!! I've documented this route several times before, so here are some photos.

Sadly, there's a lot of wheat lying wrecked, presumably because of the deluge of water we've had, but it was good to see that plenty is still standing, and looking golden now.


These are my first blackberries this year - it still feels a bit early, but very tasty they were.





This is one of my favourite local views - looking across Foremark Reservoir. It looked particularly beautiful tonight