POTTERING IN THE PEAK DISTRICT

Weather has changed but no good waiting for the weather in England so we've come to Hope in the Peak District for 5 nights, stopping at Laneside Farm Campsite.
The last time I was in this area was when I was a teenager and I'm sure we stayed here then. It has changed dramatically.
We had a short walk the first day climbing up to Win Hill from the campsite and returning via Hope for Roy's obligatory ice cream! Rain was forecast but we were back at the van before it arrived.
A pretty walk, through some woods then up on to the open moor, full of sweet smelling heather, gorse and bracken, beautiful!

LADYBOWER RESERVOIR 

WIN HILL SUMMIT

WIN HILL SUMMIT PANORAMAS

MAM TOR AND LOSE HILL

HOPE CHURCH

The rain stopped and we drove the short distance to Bradwell to see some well dressings

The origins of the tradition are obscure. It has been speculated that it began as a pagan custom of offering thanks to gods for a reliable water supply; other suggested explanations include villagers celebrating the purity of their water supply after surviving the Black Death in 1348, or alternatively celebrating their water's constancy during a prolonged drought in 1615. The practice of well dressing using clay boards at Tissington is not recorded before 1818, however, and the earliest record for the wells being adorned by simple garlands occurs in 1758

BRADWELL CHURCH

GUNNERSIDE GILL HIKE

GUNNERSIDE BECK

 After a night and early morning of rain we ventured out for a hike. Drove to Gunnerside and did a loop 6 mile up Gunnerside Gill. A windy, cloudy dry start we passed many areas of remains of lead mining. Hard to imagine the lives led by the thousands of miners of the past. Walking to work in the black hours, morning and night, often wet through, tunneling in equally dark and wet conditions.

We enjoyed our lunch at the arches just before the heavens opened and we walked back in cold rain and wind. I tried to think of those poor miners but my fingers were so numb with cold Roy had to hold my poles while I put my hands in my pockets to thaw them out. Talk about sublime to ridiculous – as Roy said as it chucked it down – now this is an English summer!

VIEW THROUGH THE RUINS

LUNCH ALMOST IN THE DRY

THE LONELY HIKER ROY WITH BLUE SKIES BEHIND HIM

BLACK CLOUDS AHEAD AGAIN

GUNNERSIDE IN THE SUN ALMOST

MUKER TO KELD WALK

MUKER CHURCH

 Another hot sunny day, we took the car 9 miles up to Muker and did a lovely circular 7 mile walk to Keld and back. Pretty Swinner Gill and East Force falls along the way, with a climb up to the Corpse Road and along the tops back to Muker. Supposedly used for taking dead bodies in wicker coffins to Grinton to be buried. I don't think I could have carried a coffin up there!

Back in time to watch Tour de France then expected to see the blood full moon but the storm arrived with thunder, lightning and a small amount of rain.

SWINNER GILL

PICNIC BY A WATERFALL

KELD

MUKER

FREMINGTON EDGE AND MARRICK PRIORY WALK

FREMINGTON EDGE IN BACKGROUND FROM CAMPSITE

REETH

 A superb 8 mile walk from the campsite steep climb up Fremington Edge with a glorious stretch along the edge surrounded by heather. Into Marrick then down Steps Wood on the roughly paved Nuns Causey to Marrick Priory, once a Benedictine Nunnery in the 12th century and now an outdoors centre. Back to Reeth across the fields full of sheep and cows. A hot hike!

ON THE WAY UP FREMINGTON EDGE

REETH FROM WAY UP FREMINGTON EDGE

THE TOP ROAD

NUNS CAUSEY TO MARRICK PRIORY

MARRICK PRIORY

LUNCH TIME

THESE GAPS ARE NOT BUILT FOR BIG PEOPLE