Ladybower Inn, Ladybower Reservoir, Aston, Hope Station, Brough, Shatton, and Hathersage

Today's walk started from the Ladybower Inn, another early start travelling on the 257 bus. I walked along the road taking pictures of the viaduct, the reservoir, Bamford Edge, and Win Hill. 

I enjoyed a difficult scramble going part of the way up Parkin Clough until I joined the path that traverses the eastern flank of Win Hill and then goes down to Aston. I passed a young Chinese couple and I imagine by their reaction that it was the first time they'd seen the heather in bloom.

I then headed south to Hope Station and continued to Brough. 

The next village I visited was Shatton..

I was heading eastwards by now, going up the hill towards the hamlet of Offerton before changing my mind and dropping down to the riverside path which goes to Hathersage.  When I was scrambling on all fours, pulling myself over large rocks and having to force my way through dense undergrowth my legs felt strong, but by now, nearly three hours later my thigh muscles were aching and were feeling very weak...I was struggling with the stiles.  When I got to Hathersage there wasn't a bus due and so I went to the Pool Cafe for a bit of something to eat. My favourite place to eat, Cintra's Tearooms and Tea Garden doesn't open on Mondays, like many other establishments in the Peak District.

Ladybower Inn, Moscar, Hollow Meadows, Stannington, and Malin Bridge

I got off the bus at the Ladybower Inn, crossed the road and headed up the footpath onto the moors. I soon reached a section of path that had recently been repaired and a pull-out [and up] wooden tree identification board installed.

I tried to take a photograph with the panel extended...but I really needed an extra arm; whenever I pushed the shutter release button using one hand the camera moved so that I didn't get the image I wanted...not at all. 

The best views were behind me along here, looking back towards Win Hill.

The weather was still quite murky so there weren't a lot of good opportunities for photographs; this one I took of the old milepost turned out alright I suppose.

When I reached the ford near Cutthroat Bridge I stopped and had a brief chat with a student who was genuinely panning for gold; he had all the professional equipment by the look of things. I didn't want to disappoint him too much but did mention that I didn't know about any gold deposits anywhere in the Peak District. He seemed to be enjoying what he was doing though and so I left him to it - maybe it was a university project that he was working on.

I checked my map as I reached Moscar House, not just to check for directions but also to confirm that I was correct about a geographical curiosity in this area. There's nothing at all to see at Moscar, it's merely a collection of a small number of isolated farms up on the moors. The fact that makes it a bit interesting, for myself anyhow, is that there are several premises all of which feature 'Moscar' in their name...and they are located in three different local authority areas; High Peak Borough, Derbyshire Dales, and the City of Sheffield.

I continued walking eastwards towards Sheffield, quite often along the road, but sometimes taking a short section of footpath whenever I could...usually adding a few hundred yards to the distance.

Underbank Unitarian Chapel is just to the west of Stannington.

The Anglical church is about a mile further on in the main part of the settlement, which is a suburb of the city.

I'd already checked on Google Streetview where the footpath leading down to the Rivelin Valley was; it's a narrow snicket between two houses, which I could have easily missed.

The walk finished at the tram terminus at Malin Bridge and everything went according to plan all the way home on public transport.

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, Thornhill, Hope, and Castleton

After hiking up to the top of Mam Tor last week I did another 1,000ft climb in the Peak District today. It was the 'Glorious Twelfth' yesterday, the start of the short grouse shooting season and some areas of access land are closed for a few days at this time of year; so I chose a route staying well away from them - an ascent of Win Hill.

Before boarding the bus I spent a few pleasant minutes at Sheffield Bus Station exchanging tales of our various vitamin D treatment regimes with some fellow walkers; we all agreed how wonderful vitamin D is and how quick you begin to notice the improvement in your health and fitness.

I got off the bus at the bus turnaround at Bamford Station, took the track that leads to Thornhill and then continued uphill to reach the high level path to the summit of Win Hill. There are some lovely views of Bamford Edge and the Ladybower reservoir on the way up; unfortunately the weather was quite murky and it remained like that, with the exception of the few minutes I spent at Castleton at the end of the walk.

It was windy and quite cold at the summit of Win Hill; there were several people at the top, one or two of them looking like they ought to have been wearing more clothing...it really was quite unpleasant.

I made a steady descent down to Hope, arriving at the Old Hall Tearooms to coincide with the lunch break in the cricket at The Oval. I had a pot of tea and a Bakewell tart; I did notice that the public toilets are still out of order - come on High Peak Borough Council...get your act together.

On the way down to the village I walked through some lovely areas of heather moorland with distance views of the Great Ridge on the horizon.

I walked along the bottom of the valley to Castleton and arrived with about fifty minutes to wait for the bus; plenty of time to rush round and take a few photographs.

During the bus journey back to Sheffield a large woman with very long, fat, heavy, bedecked and matted carrot-root dreadlocks boarded at Bradwell. She sat in the seat directly in front of me and kept messing with her hair, several times sweeping back her dreadlocks in my direction, the bottom few inches landing on my lap...and on one occasion my penis was hit quite hard by one of the baubles she was wearing.

To be honest I didn't know how to handle the situation, thinking about it now I genuinely think this could have counted as sexual assault...but at this moment, sitting safely at home, I'm able to be smiling about what happened. She looked like some sort of monster from a science fiction film...so maybe it was all a set-up and I was being secretly filmed for a surreal tentacle porn parody film and I'm the star...and the cheque will be in the post on Monday.

You've got to laugh...or else you'll cry.

Moscar Moor, Hathersage, Leadmill, and Bamford.

The train was late departing from Doncaster this morning; we did eventually set off after a delay of fifteen minutes. The guard announced that we were due to arrive in Sheffield at 08:53: my bus was due at 08:52 and so I had to plan an alternative walk, catching a later bus. Fortunately there's another bus heading for the Peak District only ten minutes later, going along a different route.

Although it was quite sunny in Sheffield, when I got off the bus at the county boundary on Moscar Moor it was raining; almost horizontally due to the strong wind. The weather forecast was for an improvement before lunch; half an hour later the rain had stopped, and the sun was shining well before I reached Hathersage.

I was a bit disappointed that there was no snow where I was walking; I did however soon see my first snow of the winter on the flanks of Bleaklow in the distance.

I headed southwards towards Stanage Edge, but took the path that goes along the bottom of the cliff; it was slightly more sheltered...but still windy and exposed. On the path down to Dennis Knoll I encountered my first people of the walk, a group of sturdy fellrunners heading uphill.

By now the sun was shining and Stanage Edge was looking magnificent: it was a shame that it was behind me, but this gave me an excuse to make frequent stops to admire the view and take photographs.

I arrived at Hathersage just before midday and headed straight for Cintra's Tearooms where I ordered a cooked breakfast, served with a pot of tea [with an additional pot of hot water - enough for four large cups in total] and a plateful of toast, complete with butter and marmalade.

I made my way out of Hathersage on Station Road, popping into the baker's shop for an apple turnover. I was soon at Leadmill and noticed that several fields were flooded; I thought my way ahead might be flooded...and I was proven to be correct in my assumption.

I crossed over the bridge and took the path that goes along the riverbank. It wasn't long until the path was flooded.

I found a stick to gauge the depth, and estimated it to be about 18 inches; just a bit too deep for me. However, I noticed some prominent exposed tree roots on the bank and used these to secure a footing; meaning that I could avoid the deepest part of the water and only ended up wading through about a foot of the River Derwent. I've watched all of the Indiana Jones films and I don't recall Harrison Ford ever having to do this.

By the way, for those of you who know the area, the photo was taken after I had successfully passed this obstacle - the sun was at a better angle facing this direction.

There are some lovely views along the next section of the walk; the photograph shows Bamford Edge and Win Hill.

I continued along the path to reach the bottom of Shatton Lane, and then walked along the road back to the bus-stop at Bamford station.