I was working away on Friday and hadn’t really had a moment in the week to come up with a plan on what I was doing the weekend. Halfway through the day I had a welcome text message from Shaun, Rory’s uncle, who was looking to get out the weekend with his girlfriend Flick.
During the summer we haven’t had any company so I was very exited and slightly apprehensive. I think the apprehensiveness comes from writing these blogs and appearing to be a well seasoned walker/mountaineer these days. However I don’t feel like this is the case & also there never seems to be any one as young as Rosko on the hills so I often wonder, despite the benefits written by academics, whether the long days out with an 18 month old baby is good for him or not.
So Saturday morning was upon us and in typical fashion I left no where near the right amount of time to get Rosko ready and out the house. We eventually left Cannock at about 8am. I worried slightly that we would have an issue parking around Ladybower with our ETA being at 9:50. We soon found out that this wasn’t going to be an issue with ample spaces available. I think with the weather being pretty overcast and the low tempeterature had put people of for tday. As long as it isn’t raining for us we’ll be out 😊.
We started out from the fairholme car park and walked across to the Derwent dam. A view that never fails to impress me and made all the more colourful with the golden colours that autumn brings. Slightly hampered by the low cloud but nevertheless a sight to behold! We then turned to the map. I noticed that the path that I’d chosen to get us up and out of the valley wasn’t a path at all! It was a fenced off conifer plantation. I Kinda gormlessly looked at the map at this point not knowing was to do. I looked through the map and noticed that there was a bridleway approx. 1.5km further North that would circumvent the plantation and get us near to the Rowlee Pasture plateau. So we pushed on. I think I liked this diversion, some easy walking by the side of the lake with views up to Holden dam.
After a short while we got to the base of the bridleway and it looked slightly steep but quite sustained. It didn’t take long until I was seriously out of breath. Shaun and flick keep themselves pretty fit & go to the gym regularly so I was left praying that they stopped for a break soon enough. And lucky for me they did. I reckon we had climbed approx. 150m of the 400m of elevation that we needed to and the bridle path started to flatten off. This part of the walk was really serene and didn’t have any other walkers nearby, I relaxed, took in the enviro ent and found it pretty entertaining watching flick jump over mud patches and puddles because she didn’t want to get her walking boots moody…. Yes…… you read that right.
As there was no mobile signal in the valley we were relying on the map which was a great change to the norm. We decided to take the next turn right which would pop us out of the fell line onto Rowlee pasture. We joined the stone path and made light work of the 2km trek down to Allport Castles. It didn’t seem much of a point of interest on the walk in, it’s only visible until 300m away from the area.
Allport Castles is 2 prominent rock features that are the remnants of a landslide which occurred in the area spreading over half a mile long. This landslip left “the tower” which is the most prominent feature which resisted against the surrounding mass which fell into the valley. As we approached the Tower I was surprised at the grandness of it. I haven’t seen another feature in the Peak District like this and I also haven’t seen cliff edges this tall in the area also.
We pitched up for lunch here and I think I was a bit too hasty in suggesting a spot to sit. It was steep either side and I was worried about Rosko standing up and falling so I was slightly on edge while trying to rate a sandwich at pace. I think Shaun was dissatisfied by his lunch also after realising he’d carted up 1ltr of tea over 6km to realise it was now stone cold!
We had a few photos and plodded back along the rock path taking in the views, I think the mist had lifted slightly however the temperature seemed to drop which was odd. We opted for a detour on the walk back to the car which ended us popping back out of the reservoir approx. 1.5 km south of the main car park.
A cracking day out on the hills! Followed by a little stop off in Bakewell for a pasty 😊
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