Saturday, September 2, 2017

Castleton, Peak Forest, Smalldale, Peak Dale, and Buxton

The early morning sun was at the right angle for photographing the church when I arrived at Castleton at nine o'clock. 















Ten minutes later it had clouded over and remained that way until I reached Peak Forest, where I ate my sandwiches in the churchyard. The church, which was built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is dedicated to Charles, King and Martyr.





I continued westwards, then southwestwards towards Smalldale. The route isn't very well signposted for most of its length but at one point that I definitely knew was on the route because there was a signpost there, I had an additional problem; I pulled too hard on the spring-loaded bolt which holds the gate shut. The bolt came out, the spring flew into the air and landed several yards away - I did my best to re-assemble the mechanism...but it didn't seem quite right.



The stretch of road from Smalldale down to the bridge over the quarry railway is quite dangerous to walk along.



The path just past the bridge gives a good view of the railway tracks and I stopped to watch the shunting for a while before continuing across the fields to Peak Dale, a rather unattractive village built for the quarry workers and their families.

I walked across more fields beyond Peak Dale, then passed next to some industrial facilities before taking the minor road that leads to Buxton. Some relief from the tarmac was provided by the bridleway that crosses the golf course.

At Buxton I had time to go shopping for some food to eat tomorrow when I'm going walking again. The TransPeak bus to Bakewell was ten minutes late and the Sheffield bus was then fifteen minutes late at Bakewell, probably due to the extra traffic generated by the Chatsworth House Summer Fair.



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