A stroll around Stanton Moor and it was cool and grey ...

This stroll involved a largely uneventful walk around one of my favourite [nearby] places, Stanton Moor.

We entered the access land via one of the stockproof kissing gates ...

After passing the Cork Stone we took one of the less well used routes across the moor ...



 From up here it is quite easy to see what impact the new Arc Leisure Centre has had on Matlock ... it's certainly the most prominent white building ...



 You can just see Riber Castle's turrets sticking up above the horizon on the right hand side.

It was so cool on this particular April day that my Beloved kept her gloves on ...

 

We turned back as soon as we got to the Nine Ladies stone circle though the photograph below only shows seven standing stones. I assume there are two out of picture to the left !



 We made out way back along the main path across the moor ...



  I love these silver birches which stand near the stone circle.

There are signs of ancient earthworks across the moor and I always wonder what has been explored and what remains unknown. This tumulus shows signs of exploration.



 Inevitably we got back to the Cork Stone ...



 I took one final photo of the Cork Stone before leaving the moor. I'm just under six feet tall so looking up gives you an idea of its height ...

This walk was followed on the 26th April 2011
 
Length of stroll ~ 1.78 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 142.07 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 26th April 2011 ~ 670.12 miles

  32 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just under 4.44 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap 

Holly Wood, a melanic deer ... and the Duke of York Stone.

There are a number of places you can park in Rowsley ... though don't use the Caudwell Mill car park. Only patrons can park there !

From the village, on the western side of the River Derwent, a footpath follows a 'private road' towards Stanton Woodhouse ...

 

This path gives a great view of Peak Tor on the right ...

 

On the other side of the tor are some earthworks but nothing is particularly obvious on this side.

A little further on the path passes through Holly Wood ...

 

Since this photo was taken the mature but untidy trees in the wood have been felled and the ground replanted.

We were getting near to Stanton Woodhouse now ...



 

Stanton Woodhouse is a farm and a couple [perhaps three] houses, though it's hard to tell.

We passed through without incident though I did once have an encounter with a gentleman who obviously thought he was someone special the way he spoke to me. I was explaining that the map wasn't very clear as to where the path went at the time. We parted on less than friendly terms.

On the far side of the houses we climbed up through the fields ...



Looking back you get a good view of the Derwent valley ...

 

We passed disused Endcliffe Quarry and turned right along the lane towards Stanton-in-Peak and Pilhough ...



Where the lane forked, we took the left fork for Stanton-in-Peak, and heard something rummaging in the trees on our left. 

It was a melanic fallow deer ...

 

There's a whole herd of them in this area. The story goes that they escaped from nearby Stanton Hall some years ago and now wander around the area. I once saw five or six of them in the mist jumping a wall on Bonsall Moor, not far from Slaley. [This won't mean a lot to some of you but to local people it might ...]

We took the first path on the left that leads to Stanton Moor and which passes through a wood on its way. 





To the left of the path, where it levels out, there's a large rock [there may be more than one] and on the far side there's an impressive stone carving ...

 

As I say the path is to the left of the rock in the photo above. When you get close to the carving you can see it's a fine piece of work but at the time of the walk I had no idea as to its significance ...



 A 'Y' and the date '1826' below a crown ... well just this afternoon, after some scrambling around on the internet, I've discovered that it is known as the Duke of York Stone.
  
On reaching the Nine Ladies stone circle ...

of

... we turned sharp right and headed back towards the lane we'd left a little earlier. On the opposite of the lane a concessionary path leads towards Pilhough ...





Though a concessionary path it was obviously well used ...

 

We reached a couple of walls which looked more like the entrance to an ancient stone fort than a quarry ...



We descended the hill away from the disused quarry ...

 

and reached Pilhough. 'Pilhough' according to Louis McMeeken's enlightening Place Names of the Peak District means "place where the oats were grown".

From Pilhough you can get another view of Peak Tor, from above ...



From the lane between Pilhough and Rowsley we could see the houses of Northwood ...

 

We had our last look at Peak Tor from this lane too ...

 

This walk was followed on the 13th March 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.15 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 54.25 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 13th March 2011 ~ 582.30 miles
 
14 of 2011
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap