Elvaston Castle Country Park

It has been a beautiful day without a single cloud. I parked up in Breaston and followed the national cycle route for about 3 miles, to the country park. The cycle route follows the path of a disused canal. Most of the canal has disappeared, but there are plans to reopen a 12.5 mile stretch of disused canal, including the stretch that I walked along today, in order to join up the Nottingham and Derby canal systems.

There are extensive gounds surrounding the Castle, a mixture of woodland and formal gardens:-

The "castle" is a stately home built in the early 1800's. It is owned by the local council (Derbyshire County Council) now. Until last year, they used the building as a museum, but it has now closed and doesn't look likely to re-open anytime soon, as the building needs a lot of repair works, which the Council cannot afford.

I bumped into an ex colleague in the Castle grounds. We chewed the fat for a bit, yakking about this and that, and she told me that she had heard that the Council had considered closing the grounds, recently, due to the cost of maintaining them.


I did a circuit of the grounds, which have a lake and topiary garden:-
I was out for just over 5 hours so estimate that I walked about 10 miles.

Dale Abbey

I drove out to Kirk Hallam bright and early this morning and parked up by the Pioneer Meadows Local Nature Reserve. I walked through the park and then across fields to Hermit's Wood.

Approaching Hermit's Wood - the ruins of the Abbey can be seen in the distance:-
The woods are believed to have been part of the original Sherwood Forest, they run along a steep sandstone cliff. The dogs on the cliff top:-
At the bottom of the cliff is the Hermit's cave. It was made by a baker from Derby in the 12th century, acting on a dream he had that the Virgin Mary told him to go there and live a life of solitude and prayer. Just a couple of cave dogs there now:-

Subsequently, an Abbey was built nearby, this is all that remains:-
The village pub, the ivy was swarming with nesting sparrows:-
I continued on, across farmland, to Locko Park, a statelt home set in a large park. The park is privately owned and access for visitor's is limited to a few footpaths that are, for the most part, fenced on either side. The grounds were large enough that I didn't catch a glimpse of the house.

I took a path that led North out of the park to the village of Stanley.

Approaching Stanley:-
I walked through Stanley and then took a footpath back, across fields to Dale Abbey and then retraced my route through Hermit's wood and back to Kirk Hallam.

It was great walking weather, I was out for just over 5 hours.

Foremark Reservoir

I watched one of my favourite movies, "Deliverance" this morning for the first time in years. Coincidentally, I headed straight out to a reservoir after watching it (in the movie the group of friends are on a canoe trip on a stretch of river that is about to be turned into a reservoir, but find that the locals aren't very friendly).

Fortunately, Derbyshire's hillbillies were more interested with fishing than with interfering with this cityboy.

It was a beautiful morning and the dogs were romping around like puppies.



I intended to do a circuit of the reservoir, ending up back at the car park, but when I got to the dam wall, right next to the car park, I found signs saying it was forbidden to use the road or dam banks. There was a friendly troll on guard duty who wouldn't let me pass and so I had to retrace my steps.

On the way back I decided to ignore the signs warning about soft mud and take a shortcut. I ended up on all fours crawling up a muddy bank, I didn't like to think too hard about the origins of the mud.


It reminded me of the infamous scene in Deliverance although, fortunately, I didn't have a hillbilly behind me trying to make me squeal!

I spent the afternoon washing myself and the dogs but still have the smell of the mud up my nose.

Dovedale

I took the dogs to Dovedale this morning. I'd aimed to get there early to avoid the hordes of ice cream eaters, but didn't set off until nearly nine o'clock, as I was watching a film on my laptop ("Mesrine Part 1" a French film about the gangster Jacques Mesrine).

I have a months free trial with Love Film at the moment (plus a £15 Amazon voucher that they gave me for doing the free trial!). On top of the DVD's that they select from your movie list and post out to you, there are hundreds of movies available to watch for free on your computer.

There weren't many people there when I arrived and I set off to do the walk along the Dale to the village of Milldale - returning on the same route (last time I came here, I walked back to the car park across fields on the hills alongside the valley. I had to lift the dogs over about 20 dry stone walls and was exhausted by the time I got to the car).




I stopped at Pickering Tor to take a photo and was over taken by a couple who must have arrived at the same time as me. They told me that I had left my book on the boot of my car. So no "extreme reading" for me, as the car park was about 3 miles back. Given the amount of people visiting the Dale, I didn't expect to see it there when I returned. It's a good book "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp" by W H Davies. He was a Welshman who spent his life as a tramp travelling across America and around the British Isles at the beginning of the twentieth century. The band Supertramp took there name from the title of this book apparently. A couple of my colleagues have seen it on my desk and are queueing up to borrow it.




The dogs loved splashing about in the river, and kept plunging in as and when they felt like it. It's a nice shallow river so safe for them to paddle in.




The gnats had woken up by the time I had got about half way back to the car. There was a swarm at the stepping stones. This seems to be as far as the majority of people walk - missing all of the best sights.
I got back to the car and was pleased to see my book still where I'd left it.

Black Rocks, Cromford

I drove out to Cromford this morning and went to the top of the Black Rocks which has a good view over the village. I then walked along some of the woodland trails around the rocks before heading down to Cromford via the canal. A link HERE to a short video explaining why they are called the Black Rocks

I've been on the diet for a week now and have lost an amazing 11 lbs, so I tip the scales at 14 st 11 lbs now. I intend to stay on the diet for a couple more weeks, if I have the willpower to stay on it that long.

Carsington Water

I thought I'd make the most of the nice weather today - before Autumn descends on us - and headed out to the Peak District to do a walk around the lake. I was in a no map reading, no lifting-labradors-over-stiles mood so did this 8.5 mile walk which I have done a few times before.

Back to Youlgreave

I intended to do an 11 mile circular walk taking in some of the many strange rock formations in this area, but cut it short as there was a cold wind blowing and (as happened last time I came to do this walk) I quickly became exhausted as its a hilly area and hills easily tire me out when I'm on the Cambridge diet.

I did at least find the right path this time and followed the Limestone Way as far as Robin Hood's Stride, the Nine Ladies Stone Circle and the rock formation containing the Hermits cave (a hermit is said to have lived there in the 14th century and has carved a figure of Jesus on the cross in one of the caves). The photo shows the approach to Robin Hood's stride, a rock formation shaped like a castle.

I didn't do the scramble up to the Hermits cave but, instead, I had a look around the stride, met some curious sheep that weren't at all worried about the dogs and then turned around and retraced my route back to Youlgreave.

Wolfscote Dale

Did this walk this morning. Wolfscote Dale is the next dale along from Dove Dale. Dove Dale is a lot more spectacular but gets plagued with hordes of ice cream eaters. I had a good upper body workout as well as the walking as I had to hoik the dogs over a fair number of labrador unfriendly stiles.

The walk gave me an appetite so stopped at IKEA and wolfed down a plate of meatballs and got a new uplighter.

Cromford

I drove out to Cromford this morning and did a few miles along the canal.I took a short video of the dogs getting muddy.