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
Lovely photographs and a lovely walk.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pet ... there was quite a lot to see on this walk.
DeleteA really nice walk, Charlie. Maybe not enough woodland for my liking, but plenty of hills to get the old ticker pumping and give the legs a proper workout :-))
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Mitch ... I don't think I would be able to do this walk now. Still, hopefully I will be able to manage something again in the next week or so.
DeleteThere were quite a number of interesting features on this walk and the Suke of York Stone was something I had never found before even though I had walked within 20 yards of it many times before. It just goes to show, we don't know it all.
Well that is another lovely walk Charlie, It's interesting to see new places in Derbyshire I haven't visited.Hope you get to do some more walks soon.Ann
ReplyDeleteThank you Ann. I went for a bit of a walk this morning [around Matlock ! Shopping !] and I'm not as good as I was a month or six weeks ago but I'm better than I was at the beginning of the New Year. Hopefully things might improve a bit more before long.
DeleteGood to hear you're thinking you might get out again soon. Meanwhile, Jeff and I walked another leg of the Sussex Border Path on Friday and I shall be posting a collection of pics for you soon, so that you can enjoy the walk vicariously. Your walk has a surprising amount of interest packed into a relatively short distance. Lovely!
ReplyDeleteThis was quite an packed walk or perhaps I'm snooping around more as I lose the urge to tackle longer walks. I will look forward to seeing your photos Neil. Unfortunately having tested my leg/groin by walking locally [around Sainsbury's !] I'm not so sure it's up to doing much just yet. I;m thinking of getting a couple of walking poles to see if they help. I will, no doubt, report back.
DeleteWhile looking through this blog I started to sing Jerusalem. Then I googled it and listened to a choir sing to a video clip that started at Pateley Bridge and ended at the sign to Darley. I said to myself, "Hey, I think I have heard of that place." That was a delightful way to spend my time, reading your blog and visiting on England's greens.
ReplyDeleteI rather suspect the 'Darley' you saw was another Darley. I'm in Darley Dale although pre-Victorian times it used to be just Darley. They added the 'Dale' to attract the visitors on the train ! Still as long as you enjoyed the video ...
DeleteWhat did the date 1826 have to do with the Duke of York. What does melanic mean? Now I am off to do some more research. It's a pleasant way to spend the evening.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the date has to do with the Duke of York although I think he died in 1827. I assume you know what 'melanic' means now ... I am never quite sure how much information to include. I only learnt of the word a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at someone else's photos of the same deer and he used the word 'melanic'. The internet *does* edukate us.
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