The Peak District Hills :: Number Two

Hello Lovelies,

having worked the weekend I had a day off today. This coincided with one of Eldest's days off College...3 days a week is full time apparently. Lucky him.

 I feel lucky that he actually likes walking and was happy to go on a little adventure with me.

You may remember THIS post and my challenge to myself to walk some (or maybe all) of the hills over 1,000 feet above sea level in the peak district. There's a great list of the 27 hills in question HERE.

At 1,214ft Minninglow was on the list and not too far from home for us to visit.

I found THIS walk , and we set off with plenty of water and sun hats as the weather was forecast to be HOT.

We were soon walking along the High Peak trail and gazing at Minniglow hill in the distance...it's the bump with trees on top you can see in this photo........

 I like to walk quickly but Eldest is generally in front of me. Probably because I take too many pictures :0)

 I loved the wild scabious that grew along the side of the track.........

and of course I loved the dry stone walls......

 Any shade was very welcome......

 When the trail was a railway line ( before the 1960's) quarries like this one were in operation .......

Now there are no noisy trains or machinery, just space and quiet...we both commented on how quiet it was. Just a little birdsong and no road noise. Bliss.........

This is where we left the trail to climb up to the top of Minninglow .

  Public access is via a concessionary path, which has only been open for less than a decade I think.

Hello Sheep, don't mind us.......

 There were large flocks of tiny finches in this field....

and the rocky outcrops looked a bit like ruined buildings, from long ago.......

nearly at the top.......

but don't forget to turn around and admire the view...wow, this is why I love hills :0).....

 We did smile at the sheep, who were all marching across the fields in single file.

Soon we were up close to the impressive trees, which give this site it's distinctive appearance, so easily spotted from many distant directions.......

There is a Bronze age round barrow and Neolithic burial chambers within the outer circle of smaller trees........

 I like THIS aerial shot, showing the perfect round shape.

Some work was underway to create a path here, but my boy thought it made a great balance beam :0)

Let's just look at the view in the other direction I say, so we do........

 Then he's off again.........

One more picture, I zoom in on the horizon.....



Gosh it was hot, I don't often brave shorts, but today I was very glad I had........

 Uh, oh. A sign that makes walkers nervous.......

 Thankfully we never saw the bull in the field that led to this tunnel...........

or the beautiful valley that lay beyond it.......

We climbed the stile to leave the Bovine danger zone.........

 and entered the holey danger zone....

 but we didn't see any of those either.

I loved this view.........

And this view......

 The building turned out to be a Victorian pump house, once used by the Quarries in the area.

  We are always careful to close any gates we open.........

The lanes were very quiet and soon Minnglow was looking small in the distance..........

 The sheep were looking for shade and I spotted a little Autumn colour........

It was midday and getting really hot as we walked up this lane. Eldest chats a lot, bless him. Here he was asking me if I would ever climb Mount Everest :0) Maybe he was trying to think cold thoughts to combat the heat.........

More finches darted about and perched on the walls........I think they are juvenile Goldfinch

 there are 3 in this photo

From the high point of this track  the walk description promised views in all directions...ummm...

It Also said you could see Kinder Scout ( Highest hill in the Peak District) on a good day...well this was a good day...so that must be Kinder, I think..........

We turned right and started to head back downhill, mercifully there was a lovely breeze here.....

and some bits of shade........

 soon we rejoined the trail, with it's stunning views. Oh look Holiday cottages on a working farm. Lovely........

 Website HERE

We had lost sight of Minninglow for a few miles, but near the end of our walk it reappeared on the horizon.......

 The fiery colours of the Willow herb here gave another hint of autumn's approach.......

Nearly back and more shade...phew.....

As eldest had hurried us around the six mile circuit we stopped for lunch at the end of our walk.........

 Then it was time for one last look at the view before we began the drive home.........

 One day I would love to holiday in this area.
But for today I was just glad to have "bagged" another hill :0)
Jacquie x

The Peak District Hills :: Number One

Hello lovelies,

I'm interrupting my holiday posts today as I want to chat about walking...I do hope you don't mind.

Many of you will know it's a major hobby of mine these days. 

I love my weekly outings with my walking group ( though I have missed quiet a few of these in the school holidays) and this is the second year running that I've challenged myself to do the Walk 1000 miles challenge

Over the summer I've also challenged myself to walk everyday ( that's outdoor miles only) and it's been good fun. I have missed a few days, but really hardly any at all. 

Reading about walking you come across lots of talk about hill "bagging." A strange sort of term, but I suppose it just means that once you have walked up a certain hill it's in the bag.

In Scotland all hills over 3000 feet are called Munros and lots of serious walkers challenge themselves to climb all 282. Munro bagging is a big thing ( How do they find the time!) 

In the Lade District there are lots of different ways of classifying the peaks. For example there are 214 Wainwrights  

Getting into walking later in life I'm ashamed to say I have walked Zero Munros and Zero Wainwrights. And these places are such a long way from where I live I can't imagine being able to change that statistic very soon. And any way I find really high peaks quiet intimidating. I've been to the top of Snowdon (on a train) and it was scary.

But you lovelies know how much I love a hill. So I decided to find some hills that I can "Bag". 

The more modest hills of the Peak District seemed to fit the bill.

  

Close enough to home to travel to in a day ( well some of them) and hopefully not too frightening.

I found a great list HERE of the 27 highest peaks in the Peak District ( those over 1000 feet) .
Twenty Seven...yay. That sounds doable. Looking at the list I have walked Zero of these too.

Time to change that. At the bottom of the list ( at 1,053 feet) is Stanton Moor...ohhh a Moor, in August ( heather time) PERFECT!

And so today we found ourselves parking in pretty village of Birchover near Matlock and heading out to do THIS walk I found online.

The area has many interesting natural rock formations ( with man made climbing holes) ...

and after a steady climb we got to the very un-frightening and flat summit.

How I loved the mass of purple......

The Cork Stone........

As well as the natural rock formations there is evidence of quarrying in times past.......

Far from seeming like scars these areas were so pretty.....

Looking across the heather and Gorse......

 more deep Quarry holes.......

and bees on Heather......

Man made cliffs I presume.......

all swathed in purple.....

There were well worn paths across the moors that eventually led down into pretty Silver Birch Woodland........

I was looking forward to seeing the Bronze age stone circle in this area. It looked so pretty in pictures I had seen. As we approached I could see it was very busy though. Can you see it at the top of this image?........

 There was a group who were doing Yoga I think...fair enough. But they had draped their coats over the stones and were being watched by larger drinking campers. Quiet odd!.......

We didn't hang around.

 I loved the view across the valley here.......

If you click on this picture you should be able to read the information about the moor and see how the stone circle used to look........

Another plant, along with the Heather, I was happy to see were the bilberry bushes. They are tiny fruits but remind me of many happy childhood hours spent gathering  these for jam making........

At the tower we stopped for a drink and a small snack but I wished I had brought more food as it was lunchtime.......

Soon we were off again, peeping through the trees.........

negotiating the paths........

Staring at the view.......

We descended  from the moor and came upon a busy campsite......

It had so much going on. Archery lessons and a climbing wall were both busy with children. And happily there was a van selling hot dogs for the hungry boys, phew.......

Loved their Hydrangeas too......

Back in Birchover the sun was shining and the stone cottages looked extra pretty.....

 Thank you Stanton moor for being so beautiful and easy to "bag". Now, I wonder which hill will be next?
  I'm not setting myself any time limit on this challenge. It's mainly a way to discover some new places and varying upland landscapes.

Jacquie x