Rivington Terraced Gardens

Not really a walk as we were thwarted by the weather and didn't do our intended walk. We drove around for a while and ened up at Rivington, as the weather was poor it was quiet and we set off to explore the gardens.
The gardens were laid down by one of the Lever brothers of soap manufacturing fame (later Lord Leverhulme) . I believe the gardens are all that remains of Lord Leverhulmes home  and are now owned by United Utilities along with a lot more land around Rivington village.
The gardens which lie on the side of Rivington Pike have been mostly left to nature but along with ruined buildings a lot of features still exist.
We parked in the car park at the bottom of the hill and set off walking up a broad track through woodlands, lots of swallows were swooping around, always a nice sight. as we walked we caught glimpses of the paths and steps leading of the main track and soon reached a seven arched bridge which spanned the path. We had no idea where the paths led to so decided to follow the main track as far a we could.
After steadily climbing we reached a group of ruined buildings and as we looked around spotted a pool down though the trees, there were steps leading down sowe followed these and reached the pond, there appeared to have been a series of small waterfalls leading down to this pool but little water was visible, we guessed this watercourse was man made and with lack of maintenance had dried up. The pool at the bottom was quite tidy except for some rubbish at on end.
We retraced our steps  back to the main track and it soon turned with another track leading off onto the open slope of the Pike itself, with a square building on the summit. We were xploreing the gardens so we ignored this route and followed the main track.
As the track rounded a sharp bend we could see a building, a pavilion of some sort,  across what I guess was once a lawn, and as the track continued we saw steps leading towards this building so we wandered down to have a look. This pavilion had a wonderful view across the nature reclaimed lawn and face roughly southwest and although it was very cloudy we could see the shapes of hills on the horizon, North Wales perhaps? also through binoculars I could make out a building in the distance which had the shape of Liverpool Anglican catherdral, it was in the right direction but whether it was or not I dont know. A path led around  a bend and on exploring fould another pavilion similar to the first facing north west, with another overgrown lawn I guess in front of it. Again I imagine the view from here would have been wonderful, although trees had grown at the far side of the lawn and now somewhat obscured the view.
Between these two pavilions was a flight of steps which led from an arch we had send earlier back up to the main track. We returned to the track, which continued upwards until it reached  a wall with dove perches set into it and leading to the Pigeon Tower a tall thin building which is visible from the valley below. Again ther view from here was fantastic, looking out towards the Ribble estuary and to Blackpool where we could seI am surethat on a clear day the Lake District fells would also be visible.
This was about as far along the track we wanted to go, so we descended steps in front of the tower past a series of arches. I paused here to watch a falcon hovering in the air quite close by, it was too big for a kestrel and I guess it was a peregrine but I couldnt be certain despite watching it untl it folded it's wing and dropped to presumably take some small animal it had spotted.
We then spotted a lily pond and took the path that led alongside it, tits and blackbirds were flying between the bushed and I spotted a small mammal as it disappeared into the undergrowth. although were were walking on a stone path we noticed at one point there were spaces between the stones, which looked as if they could have been put there as an overflow for the pond, as one the other side of the path there looked to be a man made watercourse going down the hill.
A little further on and another set of steps appeared leading up th a pair of arches where the steps split to go both right and left the steps also led down the hill and this was the way we went The steps led down over various pieces of stonework and we found ourselves on the top of the seven arched bridge. This seemed a got point to rejoin the track we had walked up and we follwed it back down to the carpark.

It turned out to be an enjoyable afternoon after the disappointment of not being able to walk where we had intended.

I did wonder why the gardens had never been restored to their former glory, but I think the wildness of it added to the experience, after all there any plenty of tended gardens that can be visited.

Shining Tor

Today we decided on a walk based around Shining Tor, which is situated near the Cat and Fiddle pub on the Macclesfield to Buxton Rd, it is the highest point in Cheshire and promised stunning views. Our starting point was to be the carpark at Errwood and having consulted the map we made for the Cat and Fiddle where there was a road leading down into the Goyt valley and the car park. We drove down this road only to find we could not drive through to the carpark we wanted, so after another look at  the map we set off into Buxton and up the Whaley Bridge road and turned down towards the reservoir at Errwood, only to find that that road was closed too. A third look at the map showed another carpark was on the route, so we drove up to Pym Seat and finally parked. The only drawback with this was that now the walk would end with an uphill climb, rather than a downhill walk as we prefer at the end.
The weather was a bit mixed, sunny spells but occassional black clouds, and just as we were about to head off one of the later decided to unload its contents, so rather than start off wet we sat it out in the car for ten minutes.

and now the walk.

We set off from Pym Seat, this was a group of rocks, which are no longer here and named after a preacher or maybe a highwayman, according to the sign. We crossed a minor road and then entered the moorland, the first part of the walk being along the ridge from Pym Seat via Cat Tor to Shining Tor. It was very windy so there was nothing to do but put our heads down and walk along the ridge, firstly a short climb to the top of Cat's Tor (there used to be wild cats around here) a slight descent and then we climbed up to Shining Tor, the route here is along stone slabs, obviouly laid to protect the land but today handy as they allowed us to keep our feet dry as the land was quite muddy with small pools of water too.

We finally reached the top of Shining Tor and went throguh a gate to the trig point, now I  have to say that from a distance Shining Tor is nothing special being the high point of a long ridge, unlike the nearby Shutlingsloe which is a prominent peak, as the picture at the top shows.

The view however from the top are excellent even though visability wasnt as good today as it has been on previous times I have driven over the Cat and Fiddle .Behind Shutingsloe we could clearly see another peak in the distance which turned out to be the Wrekin 47 miles away, we watched a plane as it flew into land at Manchester, could see Winter Hill as well. We could see the towns of Greater Manchester, the Beeston town was visible, as well as the summits of the Peak District. On a clear day you can see Snowdonia, Pendle Hill and even through to Ingleborough.

We left the summit and now walked down a path towards the top of Shooters Clough, once we were away from the edge the wind dropped considerably and the walking was much more pleasant. After a short descent we climbed again to a track leading to the Cat and Fiddle pub, but our route took us the other way and we started a long descent alongside Shooters Clough heading down to Errwood (our intended starting point). Lokking over the valley I could help but notice the purple heather and more unusual the strips of land within the heather which were clear of colour, I guess this must have been strips that had previously been burnt back. as the shapes were very symetrical. We also had great views of the reservoir on the descent.

We finally reached the bottom of the hill and took the track leading to Errwood Hall. The walk to the Hall was quite wonderful,  streams gurgled down on both sides of the track which was surrounded by Rhododendrons and Azaleas, which must be magnificent when in bloom. This track soon led us to the remains of the Hall itself. The Hall was built in the 1830s by a Manchester businessman called Grimshawe and was partly demolished for the stone when the reservoir was constructed in the 1930s, quite a short life for a fine house.
We had lunch within the remains (I dined at Errwood Hall haha!) the hall is surrounded by more Rhodys, 40,000 Rhodys and Azaleas were planted by Grimshawe when it was built.

We now left the hall and continued along a path by the side of a stream in a deep gully and descended to cross this stream on a wooden bridge, I then took a slight detour as on the hill behind the house is a graveyard where the Grimshawes and some of their employees were buried. Back on the path we started a  climb along the edge of woodland, fortunate as another heavy shower forced us to shelter in the trees.
After a steady climb we passed a small circular building which was built as a shrine to a Spanish governess of the Grimshawes who died suddenly. I looked in the shrine and there is still a small altar and various articles are found inside, crucifixes, pictures of Christ and even a small teddy bear.

We continued walking and shortly after the shrine we reached the minor road again, which we followed up the hill and back to the carpark.

The walk was around 6 miles and took us about 4 hours, which is quite quick for us, little in the way of wildlife although there was a buzzard on the drive up and we saw some deer on the way home.

Two for the price of one

It has been quite a while since the last entry because apart from an uninteresting stroll around Hollingworth Lake we haven't been walking.
So we decided it was time get our boots on again and picked an easy 4 mile walk doing the Roystone Grange trail. This is situated south of Buxton and we drove down now familar roads passing several turn offs we had taken in the past.
We set off from Minninglow carkpark and joined the high peak trail which it this point runs along the disused bed of an old railway. The first part took us along the top of a stone embankment and we soon reached a disused quarry where the old railway sleepers and rails could be seen, then along another stone embankment from where we could see cows with small calves in the field below. We then left  the trail and walked up a track towards Minninglow Hill, which from the distance looks like it its wearing a crown, with bushes around the top and a stand of tall birch trees in the middle. We could see it as we were driving towards the area and it was nice to see it close up. There is a neolithic burial ground on the top of the hill but unfortunately access is denied to the site.
We then descended a field to cross underneath the old railway trail and continued down to reach Roystone Grange. A grange is the name gived to an outlying farm belonging to an abbey and Roystone belonged to the Cistercian Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire, quite some distance away. Apparently  this site has been in continuous use since Roman times and there is plenty of evidence of this but we didnt see any. Having walked through the yard of the grange we followed a track back upto a minor road and from there returned to the carpark.
The walk was very easy going past quite a lot of heritage but it is not easy to see any of it, very poor for birds too, not much seen and recognised apart from a lot of swallows.
We had only walked for a couple of hours so my walking partner suggested we do another short walk.

We had walked part of Lathkill Dale on one of our earliest walks and I quite wanted to walk the lower part of the dale but as the walk was only 3 miles it was a long way to go just for that, so it was a perfect second walk.

We drove to the village of Youlgrave or Youlgreave, the village has a youth hostel in what was the old Co-op building and apparently the mens dormitory is in a room still labelled ladies underwear!
We parked near the impressive church and followed a narrow road down to the river Bradford quite a small river to be honest and it soon joined the River Lathkill. We walk alongside the river past a farm, we saw some quite unusual sheep here, dark brown with white socks and strangely a white tail, we found out the are Balwen, a welsh mountain breed. Once past the farm we reach the hamlet of Alport, where a road bridge crossed the river, which runs prettily down past nice gardens, Having crossed the road we continued walking a little way from the river towards Conksbury bridge, nothing of note along here apart from an area of meadow set aside as a conservation area, I could have lingered here looking for birds but didn't.
We reached Conksbury bridge where the river is very slow moving and lingering at the bridge I was delighted to see a little diving bird which I thought was a Little Grebe, consulting my book proved this to be the case, I was very pleased, as I haven't definitely seen one before. Quite a lot of ducks too, one of which I wasn't certain about, I will have to trawl the books to see if I can spot it,
Having crossed the bridge we now walked along the river, at this point a series of weirs turn the river into a number of shallow lakes with lots of ducks and water so clear that with a bit of patience you can see trout below the surface  I was very pleased to see a Dipper here, its a lovely little bird, dark with a white bib and quite a comical way of flying, also saw an unidentied Rail type bird in the reeds and again i will try and idenitfy later.
This is a wonderful couple of hundred yards of river and I could quite happily spend a couple of hours here. The only drawback is that it is quite popular and so very noisy at times.
Time was drawing on and so we resumed our walk which again moved above the river and after a short while reached Lathkill lodge and a stone clapper bridge which crossed the river, only it didn't! Despite a broad river a hundred yards or so down stream, the bed was dry! I have heard of some rivers in Derbyshire which flow underground in summer, maybe the Lathkill is one such river.
Having crossed the "river" we now had to ascend through woods along a steep hairpin path, the only strenuous walking we did all day, and having reached the top of the wood we walked thorugh a field to reach another grange, Meadow Place Grange which used to belong to the Augustinian Abbey of Leicester. The grange is neatly set out around a central courtyard. We now walked out of the grange climbing through fields until we crossed the road leading to Conksbury bridge, we soon reached a farm track which led to a road which took us back into Youlgreave, where we enjoyed a much needed mug of coffee before returning to the car.
This second walk was much more interesting than the first, with more varied scenery, not to mention the Little Grebe and Dippers.
The two together were quite tiring we were out walking for about six hours all told, although we did linger a lot one the second walk.