Windmill, Tideswell, Litton, Wardlow Mires, Cavendish Mill, Bubnell, and Baslow

I travelled to the hamlet of Windmill today and headed west along High Rake and Tideslow Rake before turning to the south and walking along the road to Tideswell.

This sign near to Tideswell refers to sheep.

I explored Tideswell for forty minutes, it's a large village.

I walked along the road to Litton and stopped for a cold drink and a slice of tiffin from the village shop. I continued heading east to Wardlow Mires, a particularly unattractive village by Peak District standards. However, the next place gets my top billing as a blot on the landscape, Cavendish Mills...

There's still some nice countryside in the area though.

The tracks at Cavendish Mill are very dry and dusty at the moment and I got enveloped in a thick cloud of dust and debris when a lorry went past me; the driver could have had the courtesy to stop and let me get past first. This was the worst experience I've ever had in the Peak District - I was coughing, wheezing, spluttering, and cursing for several minutes afterwards.

I went down into the upper reaches of Coombs Dale and then climbed out up the other side using a couple of paths I'd not used before and then continued on the old quarry road, passing my second location of the day known as High Rake.'

I finished the walk by going down the road that leads to Bubnell, and then Baslow, where I caught the bus back to Sheffield. The engine really struggled getting up the hill out of Baslow.

Great Hucklow, Windmill, Old Dam, Hargatewall, Tunstead, Wormhill, and Blackwell

This is the walk I had originally planned to do on Monday, when there would have been a lot more snow.

I travelled to Great Hucklow, walked through the village and then joined the footpath which goes alongside the road to the old mining hamlet of Windmill: there are some lovely views over to the right looking towards the north...which of course would look a lot better if the sun was shining.

After leaving Windmill I needed to walk along the road for a few minutes until I reached the ruins of High Rake Mine.

I continued along the footpath until I crossed a narrow country road and then started the gentle climb up the broken ground of Tideslow Rake.

Another short section of road followed and then I took the footpath across Tideswell Moor, arriving at the outlying farms of Old Dam before crossing the busy Buxton to Ashbourne road to the east of Peak Forest.

There's a dense network of paths here and I had to consult my map a couple of times to find my way to the top of Dam Dale.

I kept walking southwards down Dam Dale and then Hay Dale and then made my way over the fields to Hargatewall. There was nothing interesting for me to see here...neither was there at the next place I visited, Tunstead. Just out of sight though is Tunstead Quarry, the largest active limestone quarry in Europe.

It was a pleasant walk heading eastwards towards Wormhill: I arrived at the southern edge of the village.

It was then a fairly gentle descent into Cheedale, mainly grassy as well...so no slippery limestone underfoot to worry about.

[I didn't go this way in the bottom of Cheedale, but the conditions didn't look too bad.]

I was walking on grass again, a bit muddy in places though, as I climbed up the other side of the dale. It was a good physical workout for me though, my heart was beating noticeably faster and I was relatively short of breath, but I didn't need to stop on the way up, and didn't need a rest at the top.

As I was walking down the lane at Blackwell towards the bus stop I saw the TransPeak bus go by - it was frustrating at the time but there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn't rushing to get to the bus stop - I wasn't expecting a bus to come along...it was running fifteen minutes late: I was expecting to have to wait forty five minutes for the next bus anyhow. I found a fence to sit on which turned out to be rather uncomfortable and used the time to write up my notes for this blog post.

Foolow, Grindlow, Great Hucklow, Windmill, and Castleton

It's only been a couple of days since my last walk in the Peak District, but the weather has been good today...and I'm feeling good too. I'm really enjoying my extra stamina and increased level of fitness since I started taking the vitamin D supplement...and I've lost 9lbs and at least an inch round my waistline. I'm on fire!

As usual, when I got off the bus at Foolow there were several cars parked close to the duck pond, spoiling the view of the church and the nearby buildings. I did my best though to get some decent angles.

For the first time I managed to look inside the tiny church, a converted blacksmith's shop.

I walked across the fields to Grindlow where I sat on this bench and ate my sandwiches. It was a bit early, but it saves carrying them I guess.

It was only a short walk along the road to Great Hucklow, where I took photographs of The Manse and giant spiders scuttling across the gable end of an old farmhouse.

Just beyond the village I discovered a lovely grassy footpath which runs parallel to the road; previously I've walked along the road, which is quite narrow in places. Sometimes the path opened up to reveal larger spaces of grassland with fantastic views to the north. An information panel explained that all these areas are the remains of old mine workings.

I quickley passed through the hamlet of Windmill and then went down the lane which leads to High Rake Mine. There are quite substantial ruins here; unfortunately the underground passages are fenced off though.

Tideslow Rake is quite an interesting landscape, and is the largest in the Peak District; it's a bit of a climb to get to the top, near to the transmitter mast.

The final few miles to Castleton were along stretches of road, across high limestone grassland and tracks constructed using limestone chippings...which can be painful to walk on after a while.

I caught the three o'clock bus back to Sheffield. About thirty minutes later, as it was climbing up the hill from Hathersage, three separate alarms sounded...they were very loud. The driver got out of the bus at the top of the hill at Fox House and checked everything he could on the vehicle - the alarms were still sounding even with the engine switched off.

He tried to contact the depot by radio, but he couldn't reach them. A rather rude passenger waiting to be let on asked what the problem was; it turned out to be an overheating engine and brakes.

The driver decided to let the waiting passengers on and proceed with caution down the hill to Sheffield. The journey was slow and the engine was misfiring and backfiring as we juddered forward; this uncomfortable motion probably compensating for the fact that the brakes might not be working.

A few miles later at Whirlow, we came into radio range and the driver was able to contact the depot; the highlight of the conversation was, 'there's a flame lit up and flashing on the dashboard...I'm not sure what it means.'