Thor's Cave, Manifold Dale

Well the weather was glorious today so we decided on a trip to Manifold dale.
We drove to the village of Wetton and having parked, set off towards Thors Cave, situated 250ft up a crag overlooking the Manifold valley, which was reached by an easy walk firstly on roads, then on a fram track anf finally along a footpath. The Cave have a large almost circular entrance, although dispite the dry weather today it was tricky to climb up into the cave itself, as the path to it was quite muddy and water dripping from the cave itself made the rocky entrance quite slippy. I managed to get into the first part of the cave but no further due to the slippyness of the rock floor. Although I didnt know at the time the cave is on the cover of The Verve's debut album A Storm in Heaven.

We left the cave and began the descent to the valley floor, Thor's Cave is a popular place to visit so  stone steps hav ebeen built to protect the side of the valley. The steps descend through a wood so they were muddy as little sunlight got through to dry them and we found the going very slow but we finally reached the valley floor where a bridge crossed what would have the Manifold river, however the river flows underground for part of its course in the summer months, so the bridge just crossed a dry stream bed.
We now reached the Manifold trail, a footpath built on and old railway line.

Our path took us over the trail and up the opposite side of the valley and into Ladyside Wood, we followed the path through the wood, it is not walked very much, judging from the overgown nature of the path. We emerged from the wood and headed towards the village of Grindon. I have to be honest, I was starting to struggle here it was very hot and I was starting to feel queasy. After a rest were continued on into Grindon. We had only walked about 2 miles but had already taken 2 hours, how intended route was to walk to Wetton mill back down in the valley and then over Wetton Hill back to the car. I really didnt fancy the climb up Wetton Hill the way I was feeling, so we consulted the map and decided to change our route and decided to return to Wetton via Weag's bridge.

We followed the road out of the village past farms and we were delighted to see a calf that must have been born only a few minutes early, his mum weas still cleaning him while he was trying to have his first feed. the road descended back down to the valley and we found a footpath that cut off a large bend in the road. This footpath took us through a nature reserve although we didnt see anything in the way of wildlife, but this path lead us to Weags bridge, which crossed the Manifold but again it was a dry bed.

 We were now on the road again which would lead us back up the hill and into Wetton. We again noticed on the map there was a footpath that cut out part of the road. So we left the road and scrambled up a steep bank again very overgrown and soon reached the road again. We followed the road up the hill and expected to reach Wetton after about a mile, after walking for quite a while every time we reached a bend in the road we expected to see the village in front of us but all we saw was the road continuing on between fields with no sigh of habitation.

Eventually we noticed a footpath leading to Wetton, which we werent expecting so we consulted the map again and worked out where we were, we had gone wrong again, 3rd walk on the trot! We had misread which footpath we had walked up and were on the wrong road! We left the road and followed the footpath up through a field and at the top we saw the Wetton in front of us. We walked down through a couple of fields and finally reached the carpark.

In retrospect it was a mistake to plan such a walk as we had today, it was more a day for wandering along on riverban not walkin up and down hills, but we live and learn.

On Ilkley Moor baht t'at...

..although I did put it on later due to the wind.

As the title suggests we decided to try our luck on Ilkley Moor, I found a route on the Internet but it didn't have an actual map, never mind, we can buy one in Ilkley before starting the walk, this was the first mistake as we could not buy a local OS map in the town.

Undaunted we set off to the Cow and Calf car park, the Cow and Calf are 2 rocks on the side of the moor, with a quarry behind them. We set off on a track to the left of the quarry and took a track that led up to a ridge our first target being the haystack stone, as we neared the top of the ridge, i discovered my 2nd mistake, I had left my asthma inhaler in the car, I normally do not need it but I do tend to panic if I know I dont have it with me so only one thing to do, back down the to the car. As I prepared to return we discovered mistake no 3, we saw the haystack stone on the ridge opposite. So I set off to return to the car while my walking partner set of to walk across to the haystack, where we would meet up again.

Eventually after a trip down the hill and back up the correct track, we met up again at the haystack. The haystack is a rock standing on its own not surprisinging shaped a bit like a haystack. On the stone are various carvings which date to about 2500 BC, and are late Neolithic or Bronze Age. Now we were on the right track and we set off along the track up to the ridge we had originally almost climbed to.

 Ilkley Moor is a popular place so there were plenty of people about and we followed a popular track along the edge of the moor heading towards the main route from Ilkley, not a great deal to see on the moor but the views over the surrounding countryside were fanastic, we could see the "golf balls" at Menwith Hill and  right through to Ingleborough in the distance. bird wise the only things we saw here were sky larks and meadow pipits, although there were plenty of shooting butts so I hoped to see some grouse.


We now joined the main route which led onto the moor itself, fortunately the paths were dry and easy to walk although as we got further onto the moor there was a path became a kind of boardwalk over wet land and small pools. One disappointing thing to see on this part of the walk was the number of dogs being allowed to run free, a one point we passed a couple with 3 dogs which were upsetting a sheep and it lamb which we running franticaly away from them, happily they vanished into the undergrowth and the dogs stopped chasing them. We eventually reached a lone standing stone, not prehistoric but a boundary marker..

Just after this stone we came to a small stone circle, 12 stones called the apostle stones, although apparently there used to be at least 20 so what they were called then I dont know. This circle was probably druidic in origin and another example of the prehistoric life that took place on the moor. There are other circles, cairns and standing stones on the moor but we did not passed them on this walk. Apart form the prehistoric stones there were several examples of modern rock art with piles of stones and more modern carvings, (I assume they are modern , I dont think Tracey was a name used in the Bronze Age).

We now came to a fork in the paths, with a cairn (age unknown) at the fork and we headed eastward. we were now facing the direction of Leeds/Bradford airport and plenty of planes passed above as they climbed tinto the air we could also see the city in the distance a right over the Wharfe valley. We headed down a broad path and soon saw a small tarn or reservoir close to the road, we also at this point saw a pair of curlew in the distance. This part of the walk was a lot quieter and we walked past the tarn and uptowards a rocky outcrop where we detoured to see another stone circle but we could not find it,

Returning to the outcrop we could not understand the route directions and eventually set off on what we though was the right track, and descended to another small tarn, when we reached this tarn it was obvious that we had made mistake number four and now had the choice of returning up to the outcrop or continuing on the route we had taken. We could see that over a valley there was a track going in the direction we wanted so we continued onward until we saw a patch leading into the valley. We took this path and as we descended finally saw a grouse as it broke cover in front of us.
We reached the valley bottom and climbed up the other side, where we saw another grouse and also more curlews. We decidee to take a break as we sat down I could hear a curlew behind me, I looked around and saw not one but two curlews stood on rocks  about 20 yards away making strange noises, as I watched them through the binoculars I also saw a couple of grouse among the foliage on the ground. One of the curlews flew around us, very close and landed opposite. I guess we were near a nest and they were trying to distract us.

We finished our break and followed the path until it reached a wall, over which we could see the road from Ilkley. we were now on the edge of the moor and we followed the path by the wall and all along the moor edge back to the Cow and Calf.

The walk should have been four and a half miles but with the detours and returning for my inhaler I would think I walked around 6 or more miles.  It took us just over four hours mostly reasonable going but with a few climbs the steepest being at the start of the walk. it was enjoyable despite the mistakes we kept making, the weather was mostly sunny quite windy in unsheltered places. It was really nice to see Curlews and Grouse as well as the ubiquitous skylarks and pipits that we see and most walks, not much in the way of wild flowers though which is unusual for out walks.

Froggatt Edge....or not. 03/06/11

As the bank holiday weather wasn’t very good and I was on call at work too, I decided to take Friday off, the weather was forecast to be good and my walking partner was on holiday so it seemed a good opportunity to get out walking.

We decided to walk Froggatt Edge , which over looks part of the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire. The starting point of the walk was a car park at Curbar Gap, at the top of the hill from the village of Calver. As the end of the walk would be up this hill I decided to check the distance from the bottom, it was just over a mile and quite steep, not the ideal way to finish a 7 mile walk.

The route said to leave the car park through a gate, which we did and set off to walk to the ridge which we could see in front of us, this turned out to be our first mistake. After a little climb to the top, we then set off along a path they lead along the edge, we thought that the edge wasn’t as dramatic as it appeared in the guide book (pictured) but we assumed this would change.

The walk took us along a path with a moor on one side and a short drop down to fields on the other, we passed groups of rocks, there was a pleasant breeze up here which was welcome as the sun was high in the sky, we saw lots of hooded crows and meadow pipits, also heard what I think was a grouse but didn’t see it.

The route was easy going and very quiet, we only saw about half a dozen people on the edge.

As we continued the scenery remained constant and still no sign of the dramatic cliffs shown in the guide.

The directions said when the path turns north, descend, but when we reached this point there was no sigh of a path down so we continued onwards. We then saw a road that was shown on the route map and we could also see a pub, that wasn’t on the route map. We looked at the OS map we had with us and noticed a pub further along the road than the point where we should have descended We now realised that we were not following the route we should have been on. There was nothing to do except continue, we had walked too far to retrace our steps, so we continued along the path , passing at one point a couple of inscribed block which appeared to have a poem carved around the sides and another inscription describing it as a companion stone.

Eventually we arrived at another path leading down towards the road. We descend through a small wood, with strange constructions on the side of some of the trees, strange things, could they have been wild bee’s nests? No sign of bees around though. Emerging from the wood we crossed a field and arrived on the road opposite the pub.

Another look at the OS map showed a footpath leading from the pub back to our original route so rather than follow the road back to the route we decided to follow this path which initially led through fields full of wild flowers, a lovely spot to take a break and have a snack.

We set off again and left the meadow to enter a wood which is where we thought we would pick up our original route. we followed a path through the wood, as described, which should have led us down through the wood towards a track the would lead us down to the river Derwent but the one we were on took us around the edge of the wood, so it looked like we had gone wrong again, We persevered along this path and finally reached a broader track which we followed down the hill to emerge in the middle of an upmarket housing estate, large houses with electric gates. We continued along a road that seemed to go in the direction we needed and found a very overgrown footpath which further down the hill, lots of nettles here so we got a few nettle stings, but we eventually reached a main road which we followed and arrived at the bridge over the Derwent at Grindleford. Finally we were on the route again! We took a path that led into another wood and continued onward emerging into farmland and a path that lead to the village of Froggatt.

From here we could look up and see the cliffs of Froggatt Edge, definitely not where we had walked,

We walked to another bridge over the Derwent and then took a path which followed the river where we saw a family of Coots, the young are very cute and quite unlike their parents. We soon reach New Bridge where the river pools and there is a weir, not sure what the flow of water powers though. There was a small preservation area here where there were Lamprey and Great Crested Newts but we didn’t see either. Continuing along the river we saw a Mandarin duck, what I think was a Blackcap and the unusual sight of 2 swallows attacking a Crow, maybe the Crow had got a swallow chick. The path then took us through a small camp site and we arrived at Calver Mill, now apartments but once the setting for the castle in the TV series Colditz.

By now we were both quite weary after having walked for over 5 hours and we did not relish the climb back up to the car park, we enquired at the local pub to see if there were any taxis in the area but were told there weren’t any, so we had a drink at the pub and decided that I would leave my rucksack with my friend. It would be easier to to climb the hill unladened. As I walked up the  hill I could again see the cliffs where we should have walked. Once I reached the car, I drove back down the hill to the pub to pick up my friend and have a welcome drink.

The walk should have been 7 miles but with us taking the wrong route it ended up being over 8 miles, and quite a struggle towards the end. It was still very enjoyable and we must go back and walk Froggatt Edge itself sometime, it turns out we actually had walked over White Edge.

Mam Tor and the Great ridge 15/05/11

Well after a pleasant stroll through the rolling Buckinghamshire countryside last week it was back to the Hills of Derbyshire. The weather didnt promise to be too good but we set off for Castleton with the fallback of doing the caves, but upon arriving at the Mam Tor car park it wasnt too bad so we set off.


The initial walk to the summit of Mam Tor was steep by a stone path,but because we were already fairly high up, not too long. Mam Tor is the site of an Iron Age hillfort although all we could really see was the lines of the defencive ditch that runs fairly close the the summit, Once on the top we could see across towards Edale and Kinder Scout, the start of the Pennine Way. We descended Mam Tor on to opposite side, still on a Stone path to walk along the ridge of the Hill that seperates Edale valley with Hope valley, It was quite breezy here but the views were lovely when the low lying cloud allowed.


As we left Mam Tor, we also left the paved path and we continued along the ridge toward the next climb, a relatively short climb up a rough path, on the Castleton side of this rise we started to see gorse bushes with Pipits flying around the bushes, also skylarks were singing in the air before falling back to the ground. We continued along the ridge, now heading for Back Tor, a hill with a steep cliff face on on side and a small plantation on the other. This was probably the hardest climb due to the steepness of the climb and the rough state of the ground. Now we were on the last part of the outward journey, after a short descent we now started on the climb to the summit of Lose Hill again the path became paved and we finally arrived at the top. Here we could see down to plain where the valley from Edale meets the Hope Valley. The picture at the top was taken form here looking back to Mam Tor with the clouded summit.


Now would have been a good place to take a break and use the shelter of the Plantation we had passed earlier, so back we went along the same path, the descent of ;Back Tor was tricky as apart from the rough terrain it was also getting quite wet, but we reached the plantation and took a deserved break.
We left the plantation and now detoured slightly, my walking trousers, which I found out were not waterproof, were really soaking so we took a path we had seen earlier that ran around the side of the next rise, which, although a little longer, was easier going and we soon reached the start of the paved climb upto the summit of Mam Tor. Having walked up to what were the ramparts of the hill fort, and a very steep climb, we spotted another path which appeared to be going around the summit, so we took that and although muddy going we eventually found ourselves just above the carpark, where we gratefully changed into dryer clothes.


 We then drove down into Castleton for coffee and scones at the cafe we are becoming regulars in. As we drove into Castleton we could look up and see Mam Tor and the ridge we had walked, or we would have been able to see it if it hadnt now been lost to view by the mists.


All in all apart from the weather it was an enjoyable walk and one of the most strenuous we have done, but we made good time taking 3 and half hours to walk the 7 miles (plus a bit more for the detours). I think we walked faster because although the views were very good there was nothing much to stop and look at, so we kept moving a lot more than usual.

Red Kites on the Chiltern trail 08/05/11

If I drive down the M40, one of the best sights is the Red Kites that can be seen in Buckinghamshire. These are easily identifable magnificent birds of prey with forked tails. but the sights of them from the car are too fleeting.
 This weekend I went to London to see the Spurs v Blackpool game, and met a friend after the game who had offered me a bed for the night with himself and his girlfriend in Amerham. aAs they like walking I took my boots with me and on sunday went for a walk on the edge of the Chilterns.
The walk was completely different from the ones we do nearer home, being mainly through gently undulating farmland and through traditional english woodland. As such I am not going to go into detail about the walk itself, however we did see some great birds and also some fun farm animals. The best sights for me were the Kites of which we saw several on the first part of the walk, mostly they were quite high over head but clearly kites due to their silouette. A one point however one was flying very low straight towards us and I would have been able to get a great photo, however I decided to try and get a little video as my camera has a video option, sadly however I faffed about and couldnt get the video working until the kite had passed us by and all I ended up with was a poor still shot, ah well.
A great fun sight was when we were walking toward a field of pigs, they must have heard us approaching and thought we were bring food as they quite literally galloped down the field toward us ears flapping.
Unlikeon  local walk,s after we had walked about 3 miles, we noticed a pub close by so did a little detour and had a snack and a drink at the pub, we then set off to join the route for the final walk back to Amersham. While walking beside a hedgerow, I noticed a bright little bird which I later indentified as a yellowhammer, a bird I havent seen since I was a child.
All in all a nice walk of just over 5 miles, we walked for 4 hours, including pub stop and also saw lots of wild flowers, bluebells, forgetmenots and others, birdwise also saw finches, tits and a buzzard.
Hopefully back to the hills and dales next weekend.
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On the Tolkein Trail 26/03/11

A slightly tenuous to link to JRR but he spent some time near Stonyhurst College, which was on the route walked on saturday.
We started at Hurst Green, a village on the road from Whalley to Longridge. We set off from the village across a couple of field. where it was lovely to see lots of lambs, towards Stonyhurst College, a private school with a long history and several famous ex pupils. On the way we skirted a wood, where many birds could be heard but despite my binoculars I was unable to spot anything although definitely heard a woodpecker and some noisy pheasants. We reached the college by the playing fields and after passing the Observatory, continued on with the main buildings on our left.
 As we left the college behind we crossed a small road and walked up a farm road until we reached a wooded valley, we continued the edge of the wood until we reached a stile which led us onto the wood and down a series of wooden steps until we reach the botton of the valley where we crossed a stream by a wooden bridge. Just by this bridge was a well built stone bridge, which seemed a little out of place, however on checking the area later there seems to have been a mill there many years ago ago, although no trace of this remains.
The stream flowed into the River Hodder, but our route took us uphill by track that lead from the bridge. At the top of the track was a fine house called Hodder Lodge, this was built be the owner of the mill and later passed to Stoneyhurst college and was used as a prep school before it was converted into flats. The track then led down hill and we reached the bank of the Hodder. We now followed the river downsteam passing a weir built to monitor the water flow and also a tree that looked like it was standing on its roots, it reminded me of an Ent from Lord of the Rings.

 I wondered if it was like that when Tolkien was there and gave him the idea for Ents ( trees that walked and spoke). Many birds here but nothing unusual,just tits and finches. We continued to follow the river until we reached the Whalley road where apart from the road bridge there are the remains of an old packhorse bridge the arches are still standing but most of the top has vanished, this is called Cromwell's bridge as he supposedly crossed it with his army on a march from Skipton to Preston.
W now left the river and walked along the road up the hill for a few hundred yards until we climbed a stile and and set off across fields where we could look to our left and see the river stretching back (pictured). we soon reached another tarmaced track which we followed down towards a farm, we crossed the farmyard and left the farm through a gate which found us at t he confluence of the Hodder and the Ribble. A well provided bench was a good place to stop for a bite to eat, but it soon became chilly sitting still, so we continued walking along the bank of the Ribble.
 Lots of birds were darting above us, which I am sure were sand martins, There were lots of sheep and lambs grazing in the fields here and it was quite funny at one point to see all the sheep on the grass and all the lambs down by the river. On the river there were the usual mallards but also I was quite surprised see oystercatchers considering how far from the sea we were and also a pair of Goosander. We soon came to where the river Calder flows into the Ribble, first the Hodder and then the Calder (hotter and colder he he). On the far bank is Hacking Hall, which was built in the early 1700s.
Although the river was flowing quite slowly I was surprised to see a lot of debris in the bushes by the water and also in the shallows, presumable leftover from last years floods, there were also quite a lot of fishermen around (was it salmon season?) Eventually we reached an aquadust which spans the river by three arches, another unusal sight here was a flock of curlews (well they sounded like curlews, never seen a flock of them before though). Just after the aquaduct we left the river and climded through a wood to reach farm fields which lead up the hill and into the carpark of the Shireburn Arms, across the road from where I had parked the car.
The walk, which was about 5 and a half miles took us just a about 4 hours, was for the most part easy going, although the climb at the end pulled on the leg muscles. It was relatively quiet too, we didnt see many other walkers and the ones we did see were going the opposite way. The countryside we walked though made a pleasant change from the Derbyshire Dales.
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An easy walk? 13/03/11

We finally got out on Sunday and as it was the first walk for a while we picked an easyish one. 6 miles with a couple of hills but not too strenuous…or so we thought.
We drove to Tideswell, apparently famous for its church which is called the cathedral of the peaks, and parked a little way out of town at the top of Tideswell dale. Our route took us first along the road which climbed quite steeply until we reached a stile where we headed off through fields, with good views into Millers dale. We soon reached a steep track which we followed down into the dale and the village of Millers Dale itself.
Millers Dale was once an important railway junction and the track and viaducts are now used as part of the Monsal trail. As we entered the village we crossed a bridge over what turned out to be the end of Monks dale ware was flowing over the grass and Mallard were swimming on the water, Blue tits flitted across the water and the sun was shining, it was a lovely morning. We walked a few yards and came to the smallest church, complete with tower that I have seen, it was set against a rock wall and we now climbed a path beside the church to reach the top of the rocks and the entrance to Monks dale
Monks’s Dale, which is a national Nature Reserve, is described in the book as a glorious mile which is more wooded at the end. The author has obviously never visited. The first part of the dale was fairly easy going albeit a bit muddy underfoot and the path followed the stream that flows down the dale and we soon crossed a small bridge to continue into the dale. Limestone outcrops were on the sides and gradually the dale narrowed and became more wooded. However the path started to fade and we found ourselves picking our way over rocks, the line of the path only being indicated by the lack of moss on some of the rocks, the route climbed and fell amongst these rocks and the going was quite tricky (pictured).
 After about half a hour of picking our way gingerly, we began to wonder if we had taken a wrong turn as we hadn’t seen anyone else for quite along time, fortunately a couple of people appeared walking the other way and we at least knew we were on the right track. As well as the rocks we had to negotiate fallen trees and over hanging branches, this must be quite a problem in summer. Eventually the way became easier and eventually we exited the dale into a broad sunlit field, I felt like a character form Lord of the Rings emerging from Moria. Looking back the entrance to the dale looked quite foreboding with the entrance being quite forboding between two rock walls
We had now walked about 2 miles but it had taken us 2 and half hours, so we took a break and we discussed what to do. Having looked at the book and the OS map we decided that following the route would be a bad idea as it could be dark before we finished, so having seen the limestone way marked on the map not too far away we headed for that as it would take us back to Millers dale. A half mile walk up a minor road saw us reach a bridle path which was part of the limestone way and we took this path. This part of he walk was not particularly noteable except for the mass of rabbits we saw, the hillsides seemed to be riddled with warrens.
Once back in Millers dales we set of again on what would have been the last part of the original walk and followed the river Wye. This was a pleasant walk along quite a broad river for the area. The river alternated between weirs and stretches of calm water, we watched mallards aand a heron and spotted a big frog on the verge of the path. We passed the limestone cliffs Ravenstor,and finally reached the bottom of Tideswell Dale, a mostly old quarry. We walked up the dale and at last wearily reached the car park.
I worked out that we walked around 6 to 7 miles in 5 hours which was very slow going even for us. The 6 miles mentioned in the book was actually more like 9 (bad conversion from metric to imperial) and we still have Clee dale to visit which was the actual main aim of the walk, we can probably plan our own route to do the bit some other time, but it wont involve Monkdale thats for sure.