Bamford, Thornhill, Aston, and Hope

I got off the bus at Bamford Railway Station and walked down the road for a few minutes until I reached a footpath just beyond Hope Valley Garden Centre which took me under the railway bridge and on towards Thornhill.

The bus to Bamford kept good time despite what seemed to be an entire junior school, both the pupils and their teachers, boarding on Ecclesall Road and getting off at Hathersage...they also got on the same bus as I was travelling on, on the return journey.

I left Thornhill by the Aston road, but after not very far there was a footpath in the fields either side of the lane, running parallel to the road. I took the one to the left hoping for better views; none of my photographs was any good though. It's good that these footpaths are here because in sections the road is a dangerous 'sunken lane' or 'hollow-way or holloway' - there's nowhere to get out of the way of passing traffic. I needed to walk along this short stretch...fortunately the road isn't very busy.

The footpath leading up towards Win Hill began right next to the garden of first house I approached in Aston. This was one of the few paths in the Hope Valley that I haven't previously walked along. 

I didn't quite climb all the way to the summit of Win Hill; I skirted the eastern and northern flanks, but the summit was always clearly in sight.

I descended to Hope taking  the steep grassy slope down to Twitchill Farm.

I didn't visit the tea rooms, although if I'd known the bus would be twenty minutes late there would have been enough time for a pot of tea and some cake.

Finally, more photographs of wildflowers and tree blossom that I took on the walk; I'm hoping I haven't misidentified anything.

Red Campion

Cow Parsley

Hawthorn Blossom

Vetch

Bluebell - it's getting towards the end of the bluebell flowering season now

Gorse - there's an old English country saying that states that 'the only time that gorse doesn't flower is when kissing goes out of fashion'...gorse flowers during every month of the year in England.

Bamford, Yorkshire Bridge, Aston, Hope and Castleton.

I got off the bus at the bus-stop for Bamford railway station - this is as far as this service goes into the village. I had intended to walk a few hundred yards further into the village and take a path which leads past the old mill and across a footbridge and weir. I had to make other arrangements though; part of the footbridge had been washed away, last month it seems.

Fortunately, I only had to retrace my steps for a couple of minutes; but checking the map I realised I would have to walk right through the village and nearly a mile further until I'd be able to cross the River Derwent at Yorkshire Bridge.

Yorkshire Bridge has an interesting history and is unique in the Peak District. It was constructed as a planned village in the early decades of the twentieth century to house residents when the villages of Derwent and Ashopton were evacuated so that the Upper Derwent Valley could be flooded to form the Howden, Derwent and Ladybower reservoirs.

I then climbed and subsequently descended the path which leads to Aston, the last few hundred yards being along a sunken lane with many wildflowers blooming on the steep verges. The next stage of the walk was across fields and along a short stretch of the River Noe to reach Hope, where I stopped for a cup of tea at one of the tea rooms located next to a pub.

It was then a short easy stroll to Castleton, with pleasing views of Lose Hill and the Great Ridge.