Bakewell, Youlgreave, Middleton-by-Youlgreave, and Over Haddon

I was delayed in town this morning on my way to the railway station, I didn't miss my train though. The cause of the delay was chewing gum being removed from the pavement by a scrubbing/scouring machine that was using a high pressure water hose with the dirty used water being expelled by a jet at the back of the contraption...spraying everywhere for a distance of several feet in all directions. So, I had to wait for a couple of minutes until the operator had finished and moved on to somewhere else...it was a quite narrow walkway and there was no room for me to pass.

I arrived at Bakewell at 10:15 and immediately headed off down Matlock Road towards the footpath I was looking for. It was easy enough to find and I was soon walking up a farm track, and then briefly through an orchard before crossing some pleasant countryside consisting of meadows, woodland, fields, and pasture.

The weather was a bit murky, and it stayed that way all day - pleasant enough for walking though.

Just before I dropped down into Lathkill Dale for the first time today I noticed this home-made footpath sign - I wonder what point the farmer was hoping to make?

Descending to the river through the woodland was quite steep, the climb up into Youlgreave was a lot gentler though.

Youlgreave, or Youlgrave as the locals seem to prefer, is a large village and so it took me a while to walk to the western end where I took a path which led down through the woods to the River Bradford.

It was about a mile until I reached Middleton, a village that I hadn't visited before.

I needed to walk back along the road towards Youlgreave before picking up the footpath which headed due north across the fields to Over Haddon. I had to go down into Lathkill Dale again, and climb up the other side.

It was an easy walk along the road and then a gentle descent across the fields back to Bakewell, passing by Lady Manners' School, where it was the annual sports day.

For most of the walk today my legs were quite sore and very itchy - caused by the nettles, brambles, and thistles that I had to walk through not long after setting off from Bakewell. I was regularly needing to stop to have a good thorough scratch and this spoilt my day somewhat. This is the first time I've really suffered like this and I can't think why it should be...my trousers are proper walking trousers, long-legged and quite thick - so I just don't know why the material didn't protect me from the stings and thorns.