1st walk Castleton, Peak District 27/06/10

Having looked through a book of walks in the Peak District; we decided to try one centred around Castleton, only 4 miles but classed as medium, with a climb to start but then mostly flat before a descent. Its seemed a good idea to get any hills out of the way early on.Arrived in Castleton about 11 and parked in the main car park, finding the start of the walk wasn't too difficult, so set off to walk up Cave Dale (pictured). This was the hardest part of the walk and consisted of walking up a steep sided valley overlooked by the ruins of Peveril Castle, (now I know where the pub name Peveril of the Peak comes from). After about 100 yds of quite steep walking up a limestone path I began to doubt the wisdom of this decision but pressed on safe in knowledge that I could always turn around and return to the car. The climb up the valley was a challenging start for me, not help by meeting mountain bikers coming the other way, but the views looking back were splendid and made the climb worthwhile. Eventually the climb eased and the path meet a bridleway and the walk continued along this for a little while eventually arriving at a farm road. After climbing over a couple of stiles the route then followed a farm track and the walking was a lot easier. The track passed fenced off pastures which contained several dips and hillocks which apparently are remnants of the lead mining that used to take place in the area. The track eventually passed through a gate and the fences disappeared and we were able to walk on the grass again, this seemed a good place to sit, so we called a halt and had a snack.

We restarted and now the walk was starting to descend a little, we walked down past lots of sheep and arrived at a minor road, which we crossed and entered another field, where we were looking for Windy Knoll, a small quarry and cave, the cave was just off the track and I walked round to have a look but it was fenced off due to the snow melts of the winter. Returning to the path we walked a little further until we reached the road from Chapel en le Frith. We followed the road for a couple of hundred yards until we reach a stile to allow us to leave the road again. Now here is a stupid thing, this stile was opposite a stile leading the Windy Knoll, so why didnt the route we were following direct us to this stile rather than walk us walk around a road with no footpath for the sake of adding an extra couple of hundred yards to the route?

The route now took us behind the farmhouse of Winnatts farm and into Winnatts Pass, this looks dramatic when you drive down it but you get a much better view walking through it. The path followed the road down and was as steep going down as Cave Dale was going up, and eventually reached Speedwell Cavern. This seems to have been an old mine which you can visit by taking a boat trip through the cavern, something for another day maybe. Crossing the road the route then took us away from the road and headed toward Peak Cavern and Castleton village. Peak cavern is at the bottom of an impressive cliff face which you come across quite by surprise, again it is a remnant of the lead mining and guided walks can be taken through it.

The village of Castleton is very pretty with lovely cottages and a stream running through it. By the stream we found Dolly's Tea rooms and had a well deserved cup of coffee, the owner who was quite a salesman came out and demanded to know why we weren't having any of his home made scones so of course we had to try them (very nice they were too). All that was left was a short walk by the side of the stream and we arrived back at the Carpark.

The walk took us about 3 and a quarter hours, a little longer than the guide said but for a first time we didnt do too bad.

We saw lots of wild flowers, but little wildlife, which was a little disappointing, my feet came through it ok, I am glad to say, but I expect my legs to be a little stiff over the next couple of days.

I wonder how long it will be until the next entry?