Lathkill wander

A late(ish) start today, as we decided to walk from the cottage. On the way out of Bakewell, we see this grand-looking place in a hollow. Not sure what it is, but it looks expensive!

We climbed up the fields, took the road and then the footpath towards Raper bridge, in Lathkill dale. This is Sue, descending the wooded path to the bridge.

The view of the weir and upstream from raper bridge.

Looking back over the bridge.

We followed the rising road to Youlgreave. This is the fine village church there.

After passing briefly through the village, we dropped down a small lane to Bradford dale, where we sat on a bench with this classic view back over the stone bridge.

We stopped for lunch on a very convenient bench, before pressing on up Bradford dale. This part of the river has signs saying it is a designated swimming area.

Halfway up the dale, we crossed this fine example of a stone clapper bridge.

I've been told this is a good place to see kingfisher, but in ALL the times I've been here, I've never seen one.

A mossy wall crosses the river via it's own clapper bridge.

This was one of several sculptures we saw that day. Each stone had a word or message on it. There were other we saw that were in the strangest, and sometimes most remote, places. One was built into a wall. The wall wasn't in a popular place, or on a well-trodden path. Who paid for these, why, and how many people saw (or understood) them, we wondered?

Sun glints on a mossy wall.

This is Cales dale. Not remarkable, I know, but it is a dale with no footpath through it. Now, thanks to 'right to roam', walkers can access it to connect to Lathkill dale.

We saw THREE dead sheep in the dale. Sue surmised that they must have got trapped in the recent bad snow.

I said it was werewolves!

Judging by the sides, it looked like this dale had serious water running through it in it's past. The limestone sides had been cut quite harshly.

In some places, they were very undercut.

With our late start, the light was already beginning to fade. This is the steep, rocky daleside in Lathkill, turned to gold by the setting sun.

Limestone escarpments in Lathkill dale.

As the light faded even more in the deep dale, I took this shot. We still had about 4 miles to go at this stage!

It's been a strange day today, what with three dead sheep, and now THIS! Don't ask me how the body of a rabbit got up in a tree - I only take the pictures!

The waterfalls in Lathkill dale.

We managed to arrive home in almost darkness, but we'd had a good stretch of 12 miles, and enjoyed the day.