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 ...]

Mother Cap for the first time ...

 We walked away from the National Trust car park at Longshaw towards Fox House, a delightful pub just inside the Sheffield boundary ...

We were greeted almost immediately with a rather ominous sign ...

 

From Houndkirk Road you get a great view of Carl Wark, with Higger Tor rather dwarfing it behind ...



 Houndkirk Road is an ancient road [I don't know how ancient] and heads northward towards the western side of Sheffield ...





A mile or so along it it we could see some of the buildings of the city beyond Houndkirk Hill ...



 There was still plenty of moorland between us and Sheffield though ...



 It was at this point that we left the old road and turned westwards to eventually cross Burbage Brook ...



 The path we were following took us between Higger Tor and Carl Wark. In the photograph below Higger Tor rises above us as we cross the sometimes boggy ground ...



 Carl Wark is an Iron Age hillfort dating back four to four and a half thousand years. Here's part of the man-made stone wall that forms part of its defences ...

The wall must be between eight and ten feet high.

The hills to the west stretched away into the distance ...



 We turned south, past the remains of a millstone ...



 There are some unusual gritstone landmarks up here, besides the man-made ones ...



  Then we reached Mother Cap which merits a few photographs ...







 A few paces beyond there's the head of a creature in stone ... with a smile and two eyes [or are they nostrils]. It looks like the head of a tortoise to me ...



  Then on the floor, with the sun's ray coming in at a low angle I noticed this stone. Whether the markings have any significance ... whether they're ancient or modern I don't know. 



  What we could age more easily were the two or three millstones lying near a disused quarry below where I stood. I was reading some blurb at Caudwell's Mill just a day or so ago and it said that when metal grinders/rollers became readily available in watermills the need for millstones ceased almost overnight. This is rather supported by the fact that there are so many millstones lying around in this part of the Peak District ... still awaiting removal or collection ...



 We passed through silver birches ...



 ... and I found another of the Peak Park 'poetry benches' ...



 The nearby car park only dealt in credit cards ...



 Surely there's something to be said for a Ranger with a high powered rifle being positioned nearby ?  OK ... I jest ...

On the far side of the A6187 we followed the ancient sunken lane which runs back towards Fox House and the Longshaw Estate ...



 We crossed Burbage Brook again but this time by a much more modern bridge ...



 On the National Trust's Longshaw Estate further work has been undertaken clearing rhododendrons ... work that the Derbyshire Dales Group of the Ramblers were involved in 15 years or more ago ...



 I think this ant forms part of a Trail of some sort ...



 I never tire of taking photographs of Carl Wark with Higger Tor behind [as you may have noticed over the years] ...



 The sun was setting quite quickly as we neared the car ...

 

This walk was followed on the 27th April 2011
 
Length of stroll ~ 5.02 miles [very approximately] *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 147.09 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 27th April 2011 ~ 675.14 miles

  33 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just over 4.45 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

The Roaches

I found one car park space on the roadside by the Roaches Tearoom and walked along the road ...

I found another of those poetry benches. I do dislike poetry that rhymes 'map' with 'hat'. I know I know, I'm a pedant.



I walked north from Rockhall. Me and the couple ahead of me were the only ones taking the path less walked.



Once I got to the lane I tried to keep my feet on the icy lane that leads to Roach End. 



 The higher I got the icier the road became. I stood well clear when any cars came past me. In the distance snow capped Shutlingsloe stood out ...

Once I'd got to Roach End I started to climb the very slippery and icy path onto the Roaches ...



It was just as bad as I got nearer to Doxey Pool ...



Then I came to Doxey Pool. I didn't see the mermaid that apparently lives in the pool.





   The mermaid's name [or so I have read somewhere] is Jenny Greenteeth.

Past Doxey Pool I could see Hen Cloud. In the photo below it's the outrop at the far end ~ the third one. 







After all that I retired to the Roaches Tearoom and had a meal. For the life of me I can't remember what. Still, I can recommend it. 

Date of walk ~ 28th December 2009

Length of walk ~ 5 1/4 miles

Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 117 3/4 miles