Even though there was no Royal Wedding or Jubilee to avoid, we planned another long weekend away with Alison and David - this time to the Peak District, staying in Bakewell.
We made a 7am start, planning to stop for breakfast around 9. Despite the rain, we made such good progress that the place I had in mind (where we joined the A38) before its opening time and so had to find somewhere else. There are plenty of places to eat when you don't need one. But not on the A38 apparently. We even pulled into a signposted Little Chef, only to find that it had closed down. In the end, we found a 'transport caff', without much expectation. It turned out to be pretty good and very cheap - my doorstep bacon sandwich was just fine. It even had a Italian-style coffee machine.
I'd planned to do a Dovedale walk, starting at Ilam. However, it had a significant amount of ascent and was around 10 miles, so I was persuaded to postpone that one and find a alternative. I had a Lathkill Dale walk up my sleeve, so the main challenge was refolding the large double-sided map in the back of the car.
We started on 'Long Rake' above Youlgreave, and headed downhill along the Limestone Way in overcast conditions with some drizzle. This cleared gradually, and it was bright by the time we reached Halls Dale. By this time, we'd passed a large number of teenagers, some carrying packs as large as themselves, on a DoE training weekend. We descended steeply into Halls Dale and, rather than turn along it towards Lathkill Dale, we climbed out the other side and through a farm, then crossed a few fields to join Lathkill Dale at its start.
This stretch of the dale was narrow and enclosed, and seemed significantly warmer than the surrounding fields. There were plenty of Wood Anemones, and a very pleasant path amongst the limestone, but no sign of the river at this stage. This certainly felt like upland Britain.
The dale gradually widened and signs of the river emerged, eventually becoming wide enough to need a bridge. The river is crystal clear, shallow and quite fast flowing. No sooner had I mentioned that we should keep a lookout for Dippers, than we saw one on the opposite bank, along with some grey wagtails.There were lots of Butterbur on the banks too.
Having had a cooked breakfast, we decided to skip the detour to the pub at Over Haddon and press on in the hope of finding a tea shop (mostly for cake) in one of the villages. The botanical highlight of the walk was in the next stage - snakes head frittilaries.
The route crossed to the other bank, and a little further from the river, until we got to Alport, at the confluence of the Lathkill and the Bradford, only to be disappointed that it didn't have a tea shop. Never mind - Youlgreave was only a short distance along Bradford Dale. It turned out that Youlgreave doesn't have a tea shop either. However, the first of its three pubs advertised afternoon tea, so we gave it a go. The coffee was apparently OK, but I choose beer, which was good. The 'cakes' were of the Happy Shopper brand, very cheap and of the quality you'd expect. Not what we had in mind.
The last stretch of the walk was up a long but well-graded 'quiet lane' (a road on which drivers should expect to encounter walkers and rider), regaining all the height we'd lost at the start of the walk.
It was a short drive from there to Castle Hill Farm House B&B, a charming small cottage run by Christine. Within minutes of arriving, Christine asked us if we'd like tea and scones. As the pope is indeed catholic, we said yes. These were served with jam and cream and were perfect.
Christine recommended The Peacock for dinner. This was lively and very busy. We shared the 'snug' with a couple from Newmarket. Although the drinks on our side of the room were slipping down pretty quickly, the half of the conversation coming from the other side of the room was getting animated and slurred, especially when they found out Rosie is a Norwich girl and we could have an 'accents' discussion. The food at The Peacock was just what we wanted - proper pub food. We all chose pie (three chicken and ham, one steak and ale). Excellent!
We made a 7am start, planning to stop for breakfast around 9. Despite the rain, we made such good progress that the place I had in mind (where we joined the A38) before its opening time and so had to find somewhere else. There are plenty of places to eat when you don't need one. But not on the A38 apparently. We even pulled into a signposted Little Chef, only to find that it had closed down. In the end, we found a 'transport caff', without much expectation. It turned out to be pretty good and very cheap - my doorstep bacon sandwich was just fine. It even had a Italian-style coffee machine.
I'd planned to do a Dovedale walk, starting at Ilam. However, it had a significant amount of ascent and was around 10 miles, so I was persuaded to postpone that one and find a alternative. I had a Lathkill Dale walk up my sleeve, so the main challenge was refolding the large double-sided map in the back of the car.
We started on 'Long Rake' above Youlgreave, and headed downhill along the Limestone Way in overcast conditions with some drizzle. This cleared gradually, and it was bright by the time we reached Halls Dale. By this time, we'd passed a large number of teenagers, some carrying packs as large as themselves, on a DoE training weekend. We descended steeply into Halls Dale and, rather than turn along it towards Lathkill Dale, we climbed out the other side and through a farm, then crossed a few fields to join Lathkill Dale at its start.
The dale gradually widened and signs of the river emerged, eventually becoming wide enough to need a bridge. The river is crystal clear, shallow and quite fast flowing. No sooner had I mentioned that we should keep a lookout for Dippers, than we saw one on the opposite bank, along with some grey wagtails.There were lots of Butterbur on the banks too.Having had a cooked breakfast, we decided to skip the detour to the pub at Over Haddon and press on in the hope of finding a tea shop (mostly for cake) in one of the villages. The botanical highlight of the walk was in the next stage - snakes head frittilaries.
The route crossed to the other bank, and a little further from the river, until we got to Alport, at the confluence of the Lathkill and the Bradford, only to be disappointed that it didn't have a tea shop. Never mind - Youlgreave was only a short distance along Bradford Dale. It turned out that Youlgreave doesn't have a tea shop either. However, the first of its three pubs advertised afternoon tea, so we gave it a go. The coffee was apparently OK, but I choose beer, which was good. The 'cakes' were of the Happy Shopper brand, very cheap and of the quality you'd expect. Not what we had in mind.
The last stretch of the walk was up a long but well-graded 'quiet lane' (a road on which drivers should expect to encounter walkers and rider), regaining all the height we'd lost at the start of the walk.It was a short drive from there to Castle Hill Farm House B&B, a charming small cottage run by Christine. Within minutes of arriving, Christine asked us if we'd like tea and scones. As the pope is indeed catholic, we said yes. These were served with jam and cream and were perfect.
Christine recommended The Peacock for dinner. This was lively and very busy. We shared the 'snug' with a couple from Newmarket. Although the drinks on our side of the room were slipping down pretty quickly, the half of the conversation coming from the other side of the room was getting animated and slurred, especially when they found out Rosie is a Norwich girl and we could have an 'accents' discussion. The food at The Peacock was just what we wanted - proper pub food. We all chose pie (three chicken and ham, one steak and ale). Excellent!
View Lathkill Dale in a larger map
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