Surprise View, Hathersage Booths, Hathersage, and Bamford

I woke up late this morning because of the clocks going forward and so had to catch a later train to Sheffield, meaning that it would also be a later bus out to the Peak District I'd be catching. However, that bus was cancelled and so I had to wait a further twenty minutes for the next one, the 272 service going to Castleton.

I got off at the Surprise View car park. I climbed up to Millstone Edge and took the path that goes along the top of the cliff. There are stunning views down the Derwent Valley and up the Hope Valley from here.

I then took the path that goes down to Hathersage Booths and walked the short distance along the road to Hathersage church.

There's a dense interlaced network of paths, tracks, and lanes to the north of Hathersage and I utilised some of these to make my way over to the bus stop at Bamford Station. I got there only a few seconds before the bus arrived.

  but only visiting the area of the village near the church. There's a network of footpaths to the north of the village which I used to walk over to the bus turnaround opposite to Bamford Station.

Surprise View, Hathersage, Bamford, Thornhill, and Brough

I should have been travelling on the X57 bus to the summit of the Snake Pass this morning but the bus didn't show up. Whilst I was waiting at the bus station two other buses departed for the Peak District, the 218 going to Bakewell and the 65 going to Buxton. When the Castleton bus started boarding I moved over and joined that queue; I'd given the X57 twenty minutes and I wasn't giving it any longer...a few other people made the same decision as well.

I wanted to get off the bus and start walking as soon as possible and so only travelled as far as Surprise View, the first stop in Derbyshire. I climbed up on to Millstone Edge and enjoyed some classic views looking up the Hope Valley, and then made my way down to Hathersage.

I didn't enter the centre of Hathersage. The footpath came out near to the church and then I found another one which continued across a field, through the allotments and then through open countryside to Bamford.

I popped in to The Angler's Rest Tearooms at Bamford for tea and cake and then walked down the lane that leads to Bamford Mill where I used the walkway and stepping stones to cross the River Derwent.

It was only a short walk over to Thornhill and then as I was heading for Hope I had to make another decision. The timing for catching a bus back to Sheffield was going to be very convenient at Brough and so I ended the walk there.

Surprise View and Hathersage.

Today it was unseasonably cold, even compared to the rest of this year's awful spring; it was also damp, dark and misty...but not actually raining.

It was good weather for slugs though; at three and a half inches in length, this must have been the longest I've ever seen.

The weather did brighten up later though, and for about an hour around lunchtime was sunny and quite warm.

I got off the bus at Surprise View car park and walked a few yards along the road in the direction of Hathersage and took the first footpath which led to the bottom of Millstone Edge; the dramatic wall of rock which can be clearly seen high on the horizon from down in the village.

If the visibility had been better I would have been able to get some really good photographs looking down along both the Hope Valley and the Derwent Valley. It was far too misty and so I didn't bother with the long shorts; but this one looking in the other direction towards the edge is okay.

At first the path is very well defined, obviously due to a large number of climbers using it, but as I got further away from the road it became narrower and eventually led up to the top of the cliff. This short climb was as near to mountaineering as I ever want to experience: I was bent over, using my hands to steady myself and grabbing onto trees and boulders for support, and having to carefully place every step I took.

I took a break at the top and then continued along the path which runs along the edge of the moor, eventually coming down onto the Ringinglow road. I then walked down Callow Bank, which had a series of notices posted at its entrance informing people that it is now closed to motorised traffic: I can't imagine anything other than motorcycles ever being able to get down there though.

At the bottom of Callow Bank I took the footpath which leads off to the right, back up to the road, further on; and then walked along a rather circuitous route along a road which eventually leads down into Hathersage.

I took the track which leads to Kimber Court Farm; when I got there I thought I'd inadvertently stumbled upon a secret UN military base. There were several old humanitarian aid shipping containers, portable toilets, what looked like an underground bunker...and a camouflaged armoured vehicle guarding the whole operation.

I naturally took several photographs, but couldn't see what my zoom lens had captured until later. It seems that the farm is where the props for a forthcoming film '8 Acre' are being stored. I've included a link to the trailer; it looks like some type of politically-incorrect satirical comedy set in Derbyshire.

It's a short walk mainly through woodland back to Hathersage Church, where I then took a footpath leading northwards, away from the village, towards Stanage Edge. I only went as far as just beyond North Lees where I managed to find a ruined chapel which is marked on the map. Not much remains; only an archway - which I think has been re-built.

More ruins soon followed; this time an old water mill in a pleasant woodland clearing.

Finally; the route back to Hathersage is gently downhill, mainly along well prepared tracks...but with a couple of short sections across boggy fields.