Chatsworth House, Calton Lees, Rowsley, and Bakewell

Today's walk started from Chatsworth House, where they are busy preparing for the Christmas market and so many areas are blocked off, spoiling some of the views. I crossed over the picturesque bridge and headed south along the Derwent Valley Heritage Way to Rowsley.

As I was leaving Calton Lees I climbed over my first stile in three months; there might have been only one or two more on the walk today.

As I approached Rowsley I could see that some cows were totally blocking my way ahead by standing under the railway bridge. It was a planned ambush but I spotted them in time and fortunately there's an alternative route through the graveyard and the churchyard.

I continued by taking a short footpath that starts off by going right through someone's garden and then across the fields to the main Matlock to Bakewell road. I needed to walk along this road for over a mile but fortunately there's a causeway all the way. I soon noticed a traffic jam building up...there was an artisan market at Haddon Hall. 

When I reached the footpath just beyond the entrance to Haddon Hall three woman hikers told me that it was flooded up ahead and they had turned back and so I decided to continue along the road for a few hundred yards more until I could rejoin the path further on. I finished the walk at Bakewell and caught the first available bus going back to Sheffield - my leg was aching quite a bit.

Blackwell Turn, Pomeroy, Bull-i'-th'-Thorn, Flagg, and White Lodge Car Park

I had planned to catch the local bus from Bakewell to Monsal Head but it didn't show up, so instead, ten minutes later, I got on the TransPeak service and got off at Blackwell Turn. I headed south along the Pennine Bridleway, briefly walking down a narrow country lane before taking a path going across a grassy field; in this field there were some wildflowers I'm sure I've not seen before...and certainly don't know what they're called.

 

There were also some dandelions in this field - I saw a lot more of them today.

I continued heading south on the Pennine Bridleway until I reached the vicinity of Pomeroy, a hamlet consisting of a dozen houses, a pub, and a farm. I took what I was hoping would be short cut, but I got lost; I couldn't work out where the path went. There was a stile where the path obviously didn't go and a chained gate where it did. 

I then took a path which went down to the High Peak Trail but only stayed on the trail for a few hundred yards before walking across the fields to a tiny settlement with an unusual name, Bull-i'-th'-Thorn.

Apart from the donkey sanctuary, there's a former pub that's now a cafe and camp site, there's also a meditation centre and a couple of farms.

I headed east towards Monyash, but didn't enter the village; I swung north and was expecting some easy walking across flat grasslands to Deep Dale. I wasn't counting on these young cows though who followed me, pushed up against me and kept licking my bum...I wanted to run but I was scared of them stampeding and crushing me. This was one of my scariest experiences in the Peak District.

There are a lot of different types of wildflowers in Deep Dale. There's no photograph of the early purple orchid because it was out of focus but I managed to capture these images.

 

I finished the walk at the bus stop for the White Lodge Car Park on the busy A6 trunk road.

Finally, as I was waiting for the bus going back to Sheffield in Bakewell a vintage car rally passed through the town, a woman told me they are MGs.

Parsley Hay and Hartington Station Walk

Another trip out to the Peak District with my support worker today, to a part of the White Peak area where's there's some easy walking for her. We drove to Parsley Hay to the southwest of Bakewell.

After heading south along the High Peak Trail for a few hundred yards, the route of a disused railway line, we reached the point where the Tissington Trail diverges from the route, and that's an old railway line as well. We then had to decide whether to go to the right along the Tissington Trail towards Hartington Station, where like at Parsley Hay there were toilets and refreshments after about a mile and a half, or take the left fork along the High Peak Trail and loop back to Hartington Station going across some fields and a stretch of road, taking either two  miles or four miles depending on which route we'd choose.

We chose to branch off to the left, heading down the High Peak Trail to the brickworks at Friden. We got off the trail there and walked down the road to Newhaven, like Friden just a hamlet. As we walked along the next stretch of road there was a choice of six paths going over to the Tissington Trail to start the return leg of our walk. We decided to not bother with the first path because the terrain looked too difficult for Siobhan and there was a bullock keeping his eyes on me in the field which the second path would have crossed. The third path looked more promising, going down a short farm track, but once we'd passed through the farmyard our way was blocked by a padlocked gate. There were nettles and brambles at the beginning of the fourth path. The fifth path, yet again seemed promising...until we reached a stile that was higher than Siobhan and she obvious couldn't climb over it. The sixth path is clearly marked on the map, but we couldn't find it.

In this area we saw two of the ugliest sheep either of us had ever seen.

We'd run out of paths and so now had to take the road that leads to Biggin, getting up onto the Tissington Trail a few hundred yards later. We headed north to Hartington Station for a toasted teacake and a drink of tea each.

With travelling in the car it was a circular walk and so we returned to Parsley Hay.

On the way home we were delayed  by cows crossing the road in front of us.