Walk: 9.1 miles and 1520ft of ascent
Well I started off by calling this walk 'Cressbrook Dale' but that only turned out to be part of it as we had to make some adjustments to the walk due to less than perfect signage; or should I say lack of it.
I dropped Donna off at work and headed over to Stannington to pick Colin up; about 9:45am when I got there. We then headed in a bit of a loop, 20 miles across some stunning countryside and by 10:30am we were parked in the car-park at Monsal Head; a bit pricey at £5.50 but supply and demand and all that. Colin hadn't walked here before so was really looking forward to it, as was I actually as although I had done a number of walks around in here with Donna, I'd never done the walk we were to do today.
We started with the steep descent down to the Monsal Trail, where we set off in the direction of Upperdale before crossing the River Wye to head in the direction of Cressbrook Dale. A steepish uphill section, and thankfully none of the lethargy that I suffered on the walk up Kinder with Malc a couple of weeks or so ago. In fact, I almost felt at that stage that I could run up hills!
Now we had expected the path to be clear and well worn, but we ended up on a narrow slippy path that took us up the western side of the dale, so had to pick up a path taking us back down to the bottom; all seemed good. However, after crossing a small bridge we came to a split in the path with no signage; should we go left or right?
As the path right looked a better option we headed along it, only to find a long incline that took us out to the top of the dale; not exactly what we had planned, but que sera sera. I suppose the advantage of this was that we got to see some fantastic views down into the dale.
Not much point in heading all the way back down, so we picked up a footpath in an easterly direction and crossed a number of fields, all on a slight incline so the heart got a good work-out. We headed over Longstone Moor and to a really surreal place. It's an area marked as 'disused mines' and it certainly looked like it had been used for something industrial in the past. All fenced off with danger signs, and large areas of a yellowy orange slurry, and signposts saying 'quicksand'! We just walked all the way around the periphery and then stopped for a bite to eat.
It was now time to head back to the start of the walk, so we crossed a large expanse of heather covered moorland that was broken up with old quarries and mines hidden amongst the undergrowth, then taking the steep path back downhill to Great Longstone where we picked up the country lane to take us back to Monsal Head. Before arriving back there, we stopped off at a lovely small church next to the road, it's architecture was extremely unfamiliar in the area which made it all the more interesting.
So our last stop, the Stables Bar at Monsal Head; a pint of well deserved Pepsi for me, and a gorgeous looking pint of Monsal Gold for Colin. Great walk, great conditions, great company.
Well I started off by calling this walk 'Cressbrook Dale' but that only turned out to be part of it as we had to make some adjustments to the walk due to less than perfect signage; or should I say lack of it.
I dropped Donna off at work and headed over to Stannington to pick Colin up; about 9:45am when I got there. We then headed in a bit of a loop, 20 miles across some stunning countryside and by 10:30am we were parked in the car-park at Monsal Head; a bit pricey at £5.50 but supply and demand and all that. Colin hadn't walked here before so was really looking forward to it, as was I actually as although I had done a number of walks around in here with Donna, I'd never done the walk we were to do today.
We started with the steep descent down to the Monsal Trail, where we set off in the direction of Upperdale before crossing the River Wye to head in the direction of Cressbrook Dale. A steepish uphill section, and thankfully none of the lethargy that I suffered on the walk up Kinder with Malc a couple of weeks or so ago. In fact, I almost felt at that stage that I could run up hills!
Now we had expected the path to be clear and well worn, but we ended up on a narrow slippy path that took us up the western side of the dale, so had to pick up a path taking us back down to the bottom; all seemed good. However, after crossing a small bridge we came to a split in the path with no signage; should we go left or right?
As the path right looked a better option we headed along it, only to find a long incline that took us out to the top of the dale; not exactly what we had planned, but que sera sera. I suppose the advantage of this was that we got to see some fantastic views down into the dale.
Not much point in heading all the way back down, so we picked up a footpath in an easterly direction and crossed a number of fields, all on a slight incline so the heart got a good work-out. We headed over Longstone Moor and to a really surreal place. It's an area marked as 'disused mines' and it certainly looked like it had been used for something industrial in the past. All fenced off with danger signs, and large areas of a yellowy orange slurry, and signposts saying 'quicksand'! We just walked all the way around the periphery and then stopped for a bite to eat.
It was now time to head back to the start of the walk, so we crossed a large expanse of heather covered moorland that was broken up with old quarries and mines hidden amongst the undergrowth, then taking the steep path back downhill to Great Longstone where we picked up the country lane to take us back to Monsal Head. Before arriving back there, we stopped off at a lovely small church next to the road, it's architecture was extremely unfamiliar in the area which made it all the more interesting.
So our last stop, the Stables Bar at Monsal Head; a pint of well deserved Pepsi for me, and a gorgeous looking pint of Monsal Gold for Colin. Great walk, great conditions, great company.
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