Later one morning ... in the month of May.

After reaching Cressbrook Mill as described in One Morning in the Month of May  I started on the return half of the walk. I walked uphill to reach this rather impressive memorial seat ...

 

According to a page on the Sole Society website the stone plaque reads  

"Charles Edward Solly for 8 years in charge of Cressbrook Mill.

Died 5^th January 1898 aged 33 years"

He had been the manager at Cressbrook Mill but died in his early 30s.

I've heard it said that it was placed half way up the hill so the millworkers could have a break on their way up to the village of Cressbrook. I had to make that climb too ...

 

Eventually I turned off the road onto a narrow woodland path running between dog mercury and wild garlic ...



 A track leads to Ravensdale Cottage with a view of the far side of the dale ...



 Ravensdale Cottages were originally lived in by millworkers. I always have to take a photograph here ...



 On the opposite side of the path from the cottages there is usually a spectacular display of wild garlic ...



 The lower part of Cressbrook Dale is well wooded and largely different shades of green in Springtime ...



 I passed through a stile into English Nature's reserve and enjoyed the birdsong ...





The dale opens out a little later and I spotted the first signs of lead mining in the valley ...



 Above Cressbrook Dale is Peep o' Day Cottage which you can just pick out in the photograph below. What a fantastic view they must have ...



 Before you get near the cottage though another path takes off to the left into Tansley Dale ...



 Part way up Tansley Dale I turned around to look back down into Cressbrook Dale ... 



 Many visitors to the Peak District and Derbyshire Dales [which overlap to some extent] are amazed by our walls. We like walls up here ...



 A well used path [one of a number of options hereabouts] leads across a field towards Litton village ...



 ... it leads right up to a cottage ...



 There will be some who hate the thought of a footpath being that close to their house. Well, they should never buy a cottage or a house like that because the chances are that the path was there before the house.

In Litton itself I was amused by this sign ...



 Outside the Red Lion is a seat with a memorial plaque on it ...




 So I did ...



 After the pint and the nuts I walked past Litton Cross out of the village ...



 A path underneath a line of beech trees took me back to the car ...



 A short walk packed full of interest.

   This walk was followed on the 6th May 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 5.74 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 172.54 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 6th May 2011 ~ 694.28 miles

  39 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging approximately 4.42 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

One morning in the month of May ...

There's a good-sized car park in Tideswell Dale and it has toilets ! That can sometimes be a great relief.

Take the path south from the car park ...

 

Further down the dale, there's one of the Peak Park 'poetry benches' that I am tracking down ... in a lazy, uncoordinated way ...

 

There's also a giant wooden water vole !

 

Tideswell Dale is one of the Derbyshire Dales lovely limestone dales ...

 

I reached Litton Mill where the old mill has been renovated and restored ... and is now luxury apartments. The property at the easternmost end is the Old Gas House. As I stood there about to take a photograph a woman appeared from in the house and pretended to do something down the side of the property. All the time though she was staring at me and giving me rather suspicious looks. I approached her and told her not to worry I wasn't taking a photo with a view to doing anything else ... so was it alright if I took a photo ?

She agreed ...



 I continued down the valley with the River Wye on my right and sunshine shining through the Spring leaves ...



 It was shortly after this that a man walking up the dale told me to look out for a mole on the path ~ "it looks dead to me". This sounds interesting I thought. Once I got there though the mole 'came to life' ...



  This short video actually appeared on BBC TV's Springwatch programme BUT THEY FORGOT TO MENTION MY NAME ! Not that I let it bother me ...

This stretch of the River Wye in Millers's Dale is probably one of my favourite stretches of rinverside walking ... anywhere ...



 I think it's delightfiul ...



 Further along the path I could see men working on the old railway line above ... what were they doing ? Well it subsequently transpired that they were laying a new surface and preparing to open up all the tunnels on the Monsal Trail ...



 Quite where Millers Dale becomes Water-cum-Jolly I'm not sure but I think it's generally accepted that this part of the dale is Water-cum-Jolly ...






  Like Litton Mill Cressbrook Mill was in danger of falling into disrepair until a few years ago but now it has been converted into luxury apartments ... with a few holiday flats thrown in.



   I'd now reached the point where I had to start the return section of the walk ... 

[to be continued ...]

Chatsworth under wraps ... and of staddle stones, toads and Dryad's Saddle.

In the car park at Calton Lees there's a block of [what I hope is] Derbyshire stone in memory of the 11th Duke of Devonshire ...

  The stone acknowledges his "wish that all should enjoy Chatsworth".

From the car park a short stretch of path leads to the bridge over the Derwent ...



 Once you've walked along the short stretch of road beyond the bridge, whilst trying to avoid the traffic, you can bear left and follow the old lane that climbs steadily uphill to Beeley Hilltop ...



 Tucked against the wall of Beeley Hilltop [which paradoxically isn't at the top of the hill] are at least eight staddle stones. These were used as support for small barns or hayricks to keep the rats out ...



  A short distance beyond this old farmhouse we forked left following a concessionary which isn't marked on the OS Map in front of me ~ it's an old map ~ it might be on a newer one ... there was a tall gate that opened onto the moorland [to keep the deer in ... or out ?].



  The path beyond climbs up to Rabbit Warren Edge ...



 I think I can say I have never seen a rabbit hereabouts. 

Once we'd negotiated the very high step stiles, we followed the gravel track through Bunker's Hill Wood ...



There are two Robin Hoods in Derbyshire, one ten or twelve miles away near Whatstandwell and the other one near Baslow on the far side of Chatsworth ...



 We were aiming in the general direction of the latter. The track through the wood continued ...



 We reached Swiss Lake ... and you can just make out Swiss Cottage on the far side in a couple of the photographs below ...







  The track we were on then leads to the Emperor Lake, so named as it provides the water for the Emperor Fountain in the gardens of Chatsworth House, far below. We walked around the edge of Emperor Lake ...



 I'd never been this way before and so was surprised to find that the path brought us out next to a pond overlooking the gardens ...



 As I stepped around the stones at the side of the pond, looking to get a better photo of the gardens below, I stopped just before taking the next step ...



  I had to go down to a lower level to get a shot of the water falling off the end of the stone garden feature ...



 A rotting tree stump provided a home for some Dryad's Saddle [Polyporus Squamosus] ...


  
It seems these may be edible [but don't take my word for it] ... see here ...

 A couple of years ago anyone making a special trip to see Chatsworth House would have been disappointed. Heck, we only live five miles away and we were ...



  We crossed the still waters of the River Derwent again ...



 ... and got another view of Chatsworth House. There were two sides covered in sheeting !



  The path sticks very close to the river in some places ...



 The weir was really noisy ... you've been warned !
 


   I always enjoy watching herons ... usually they take off. 



 We passed the old sawmill ...



 ... and finished with a look at the road bridge we crossed a few hours earlier. I have always believed that the metal grille hanging below the bridge is to keep the deer in ...



 This walk was followed on the 24th April 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.86 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 135.91 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 24th April 2011 ~ 663.96 miles

  30 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just over 4.5 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap