Alport Castles, the shooting cabin and Upper Derwent valley

Each year, a couple of friends come to our part of the world for a holiday. They live in Chicago, well, Valpariso to be correct. They have nothing like the Peak District around them, so they crave this holiday every day until it comes. Amazingly, Steve does everything by bus, and knows timetables inside out! Some places are harder to get to than others, so we decided to take them to the upper Derwent valley as a treat. here they are, sitting on a log, at the end of the walk.

Do they look happy? Believe me, they WERE!

As we drove towards our starting point at Ladybower Reservoir, this was the sort of view we got. How lovely to have such a good day to take Steve and Steph out.

Tranquil and calm - Ladybower at its most peaceful.

The foxglove - digitalis - one of our most beautiful, but deadly, plants. Every part of this plant is poisonous.

Nothing deadly about this little beauty though!

We parked at King's Tree, then we walked along this spur of the reservoir to join the path we would take.

The ever-present Foxglove.

We intended taking them to the upper Derwent Valley, and our favourite shooting lodge, for lunch but first they had never seen Alport castles, so a short detour was planned to include this landmark. The pull up the steep hill and over the moors was good.

Approaching the top, and the view.

It hides itself until the VERY LAST minute - then.........WHAM!

The 'Castles' (dark, in foreground) and looking down the Alport valley.

Looking up the Alport valley towards Kinder Scout.

After staying to admire the views, we dropped back down the climb to rejoin the path that goes up to the shooting cabin.

On the way, we passed through some lovely coniferous forest.

The views on the path up to the top of the moors.

We eventually got to the shooting cabin at JUST the right time - lunchtime!

We duly signed the visitors book inside the cabin.

Not exactly Chatsworth, but always a welcome sight!

It MUST be summer - Steve is taking his trouser bottoms off!

Our picnic on the cabin 'verandah'.

The moors.

We saw a clutch of young grouse.

Mum was close by, clucking away, as mums do!

The small bridge just above slippery stones, with Steve, Sue & Steph.

Steph takes our picture.

I reckon Sue was a spaniel in a former life - she just LOVES water, and can't resist it.

A cuddle at slippery stones bridge, which was taken apart, stone by stone, and rebuilt when the reservoirs were flooded.

As we approached the car, a low-flying helicopter came screaming down the valley. I just managed to catch a shot of it before it was gone!

A last view back of Howden Reservoir.

And the turrets of Howden Dam.

Buttercups and Stanage Edge.

Buttercups, Stanage Edge & Millstones.

Tuesday came around, and dawned a LOVELY day. We decided to go up onto Stanage Edge, as it's been a while since we've been there.

One of the local cats was enjoying the warm sunshine as we walked up to the car.

These lovely poppies are in one of the cottage gardens.



We drove to Hathersage, parked up, and set off towards Bronte Cottage, through fields of buttercups.
They were really profuse here, and it was a delight to walk through them.

All around us, fields of gold - wonderful!

This is Bronte Cottage. The owner was in the garden, so we asked him the history of the name. Sue had said to me that it didn't look old enough to have been around when the Bronte sisters were, and she was right. Apparently, it is so named because Emily used to use a footpath that ran through where the house now stands. She used to stay with the Eyre family at North Lees Hall.

This is North Lees Hall.
It's now converted into just TWO self-catering apartments.

Our destination - Stanage Edge.

As we got closer, it looked ever more inviting.
The day was REALLY warm now, and we had been walking in the shade of the woodland, but now it was time to climb onto the edge, and into the sun.

Looking along the edge to High Neb, that far point you can see.

The entry point to the top.

Once we were up there, the views opened up for us.

You can see the scar of the path up Win hill.
Mam tor has a puff of cloud above it.

Ah, what a lovely perch for two!
We decided to have an early lunch and sat in the shade of a wall, whilst looking out on the spectacular view. We listened to our first cuckoo, lapwings, fieldfare, the beautiful, haunting call of the curlew, and of course, the grouse was there too. telling us to;

'GO BACK, GO BACK, GO BACK'

Win Hill, left. The shoulder of Mam Tor behind, then the top of Back Tor peeping. Finally, to the right you can see Lose Hill. The ridge behind is Kinders' Southern edge.

The moor in front leads to Bamford Edge. Ladybower Reservoir is just over the top and in the valley beyond.

After the walk along the top, we deliberately took the path below the edge to take some pictures of the millstones. These millstones are incredible things. It looks like someone just arrived one morning, told the men to down tools and left! There are SO many stages of stones; just cut squares, some ones rounded, but without holes, finished ones that were never removed. Sad really.

This huge one was propped on stones, ready to have the centre hole cut.

I can just hear the voice of the foreman;

"Down tools lads, we're done!"

Finally, we went through this cool copse and made our way back to Hathersage, where we decided to have a swim in the outdoor pool there. It was a great way to finish the walk and day.

ALPORT, STANTON IN PEAK, NINE LADIES STANTON MOOR, CORK STONE, BIRCHOVER, BRADFORD DALE

Welcome to 'walkpeaks' - my latest blog. If you're used to 'Peakwalks' (one of my other blogs), and have come here from my message on that (and my other) blogs, then thanks for following me. I HAD to start a new blog, as the old one was taking forever to load for a newcomer.

If you ARE a newcomer, then welcome to my world of walking. Here we go then, with my first proper posting...........

This little piggy - was very happy, snuffling about in the garden!

We parked the car at Alport, booted up in the lovely morning sun, and walked across the road to see these two happily foraging for grubs, etc.

If you need your garden digging, don't do it the hard way - get a couple of piggies to do it for you!

The river Lathkill, as usual, was looking good.

Crystal clear, babbling along at its own sweet pace, and it made us feel very relaxed just to look at it.
A lovely show of Wysteria on a cottage in Alport.
The little bridge over the river.
At this time of year, a green dream.
Just LOOK at this lane. It does the soul good to walk along it.
It's really great for Sue & I to have this just a ten minute drive from where we live.
We work hard, but this really re-charges the batteries fully.
Then I looked to the right, over the fields and to this wonderful sky.
What more could anyone want from life? I really DO feel so sorry for the many people who live in the area, and have never set foot on a path to discover this sort of thing.

These poppies were standing proud in a garden in Stanton-in-the-Peak village.

Don't you just love the little idiosyncrasies of villages?

I noticed this fabulous door knocker, both practical AND topical.

Rhododendron, in a garden, also in Stanton-in-the-Peak.

No wonder they built a village here, just LOOK at the views they get!

After a short climb up the lane out of the village, we turned onto Stanton moor and covered the short walk to the Nine Ladies stone circle. Like most of these places, VERY evocative. I'm not at all religious, but I have to admit to getting a certain 'feeling' (I can't really describe it) when I visit such places. I remember getting it when I visited Arbor Low, another stone circle in Derbyshire.

After lunch among the stones, we carried on across Stanton moor to where the aptly named 'Cork Stone' is.

Of COURSE, I had to get up there!

It looks insurmountable, but don't be TOO impressed.........

There's a ladder of sorts up the other side ;-)

We moved on, and to the next village, Birchover.

This unusual millenium stone stands at the entrance to the village.

This is the garden of the old vicarage, now a private residence.

This pond always sends out serenity.

They must unwind many an hour at its side, I know I would if I lived there.

Superb and very long-ranging views today in the pristine air conditions.

Just right for photography.

I couldn't have arranged these clouds better myself.

Some lovely shows of flowers at this time of year.

One of my favourites is the cornflower.

Well on the way back now, and a good view of Youlgreave church tower.

We walked back down Bradford Dale marvelling at the beautiful buttercups there.

This really is a nice picture, maybe even my favourite of the day.

And then we were back at the car at Alport.

A great day, and a great opportunity for my first posting here on 'walkpeaks'.

If you've enjoyed it, please take the time to add a comment, I LOVE reading them :-)

Les

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