Longnor, High Wheeldon & Pilsbury Castle

Parked in Longnor and headed back out the way we'd come in. Turned left into a lane that lead to a footpath across the fields to the lane past Alderley Cliff. There was a group of people orienteering on bicycles that were rather annoying, but I'd got out of bed the wrong side, so that didn't help.

Looking across the Dove valley from Longnor towards High Wheeldon

We dropped down steeply from the village, crossed the valley and on meeting the road turned left up the hill to the base of High Wheeldon on the right and Aldery Cliff.  We went to take a closer look at the climbs...

Aldery Cliff

and the old Orpheus dig (with the ubiquitous gigantic pile of mud and stones outside - 'Ken woz 'ere').

 The gated entrance to one of the Aldery Cliff Caves

- the crag looks very interesting and definitely worth a visit in the summer. We then trudged up High Wheeldon...

Looking back down to Aldery Cliff.

right onto the top and then back down the north ridge to take a look at the entrance to Fox Hole Cave.

 Looking down the north ridge of High Wheeldon Aldery Cliff,
with Paul stood near the entrance to Fox Hole Cave

After having a brief snack and hot drink in the comparative shelter of the cave entrance...

Entrance to Fox Hole Cave on High Wheeldon

we continued south down the valley, crossed the road just above Crowdecote and on up the bottom of the valley to finally arrive at Pilsbury Castle, where we stopped for lunch.

 Approaching Pilsbury Castle

There were some sheep in the field, as usual, but one ewe had two tiny lambs with her, much to the consternation of another ewe to whom they ran - she turned tail and 'ran away'!

As we dropped back down to the Dove we encountered a group of off-road bikers tearing up the countryside and making a hideous racket. Our way continued along the route we take when we do the Hartington/Pilsbury walk, except that instead of turning off the sunken lane that runs straight up the side of the ridge, we continued right to the top. The track should have been a pleasant walk except that it had just been torn up by the bikes coming down it and it was really muddy and slippy.

From there we walked about a mile along the lane back towards Longnor, until we reached a track on the left down to Over Boothlow, which we followed down the side of the ridge and then turned north along the Manifold valley and into the back of the village.