Peak Forest / Old Dam Walk

I thought I'd left early enough to get to Peak Forest, but when I realised that I'd taken a longer route than necessary by going along the A6 and through Mill Dale to Tideswell and then run into really thick fog, I was beginning to wonder.  I also wasn't sure where we were parking, but I guessed right and managed to park up outside the church.  I saw Paul arrive soon after, so knew I was in the right place.

In the end there were only five of us - Paul, Peter, Jill and a guy that I recognised from the Carsington walk, whose name is Phil.  We headed off up to Eldon Hole and then dropped back down the main field to an enormous rake that runs across the fields; I can't believe I've never noticed it before.  We took a footpath on the left just past the rake and followed it up and over the top of the hill to Watts Plantation...

Heading north and dropping down from the top of the hill.

heading more or less north until we came to an enormous shaft, covered by a large grate.

The others stood on the grating over the shaft.

The shaft had a diameter of something like six feet and appears to continue at the bottom.

From there, we headed back slightly and along the eastern side of the hill until we eventually dropped right down into the bottom of the valley.  We then missed a turn, which would have taken us across the fields and cut the corner, but we continued down onto Old Dam Lane and turned east along it until we reached the Limestone Way.  After a steep climb up and over the hill we crossed the A623 and continued along a lane opposite, following the Limestone Way.

Along the lane a way, we turned right onto a lane which followed the route of the Pennine Bridleway and dropped steeply into the valley.  After realising we'd missed the path, we returned to the very bottom of the hill and took a path that led along the bottom of the right-hand side of the valley to Damside Farm.

Dam Dale.

From there it was a simple walk along the lane back into Peak Forest and the cars.

Photos and surveying of new passage in WICC

After much debate, Keith and Pete decided to get Simon Brooks involved to get the new passage photographed and surveyed and an article ready to put in Descent for late January / early February, so the weekend after the breakthrough saw Simon and Paul joining us in WICC.

Pete opened up the scaffolding and Paul and I followed him down into the new passage, while Keith and Simon surveyed through the boulder choke.  I headed off with a roll of tape to mark the route we'd taken the previous week and I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of damage.  I used up the 250m roll before I got back to the big chamber, which Keith had since christened Three Way Chamber, which meant that we had more passage than perhaps we'd realised.  By the time I finished off right back to the breakthrough, the others were back along the main passage and Simon was busy taking photos.

 Keith in the bottom of the dig, with the hole below (photo Simon Brooks).

Pete, myself and Keith at the breakthrough point - we came through where the light is shining from (photo Simon Brooks).

The passage from which we emerged into Three Way Chamber (photo Simon Brooks).

Keith and Pete in Three Way Chamber (photo Simon Brooks).

Keith in the start of the continuing main passage, named Urchin Passage, after the formations (photo Simon Brooks).

Keith in Urchin Passage - note the square top right hand side of the passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Pete and Keith in Urchin Passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Pete and myself in Urchin Passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Keith and Pete in Urchin Passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Pete in Urchin Passage - note the smaller size of the passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Keith investigating the boulder choke at the end of Urchin Passage (photo Simon Brooks).

Once the photography was done, Simon, Keith and I fetched Simon's DistoX (a great bit of gear, similar to the measuring instruments used by estate agents, which has a laser beam, which you point at a surface and measure the distance between the Disto to the surface - much better than a tape measure!) and started surveying Urchin Passage.  Once we got used to what we were doing it didn't take long, but we were surprised at the direction the passage appeared to be trending; with all its twists and turns it had been difficult to get a feel for where it was going.  While the photography had been going on, I'd had a closer look at the place where water had been sinking and discovered that it was quite a bit deeper than originally thought.  When we reached this point during the surveying, Keith stepped onto a large boulder to point the Disto down a gap in the boulders and was greatly alarmed when the boulder dropped a few inches and then wedged again!!  He flew out of the alcove back onto terra firma!  This pitch was later called "The Elevator" as Keith said that was what it felt like.  Personally, I'm glad I didn't get to find out!

Once we finished, we went to take a look at the smaller passage off Three Way Chamber and found Pete and Paul at the far choke, having spent some time 'progging'.  They'd already shifted quite a large quanity of stone and some of this was already lining one wall of the passage.  This passage is interesting in that all the small stalagmites have been broken and are still lying in place.  Taking that into account, the chokes on both passages and the other 'damage' throughout the new cave, leads us to believe that there was a major earth movement at some point in the distance past, which broke formations and choked the avens.  Was the 'original' passage also the same when t'owd man first investigated it?  Did he really break up the formations to remove them or were they already broken?  We'll probably never know, but it does open up some interesting questions.

Pete and Paul were very proud of the progress they'd made, having at one point cleared the small aven they were digging across, but then a little bit more 'progging' had produced a massive downpouring of boulders and now the aven is clear for the bottom 20 feet or so!!  Apparently they moved very fast!  Keith pointed out a collection of chert nodules in the right-hand wall near the boulder choke in the shape a number two - it's these nodules that have since given the passage its name of Cherty Two Passage.

The cherty 'two'.

While Keith joined the 'progging' team, Simon and I went to collect the Disto from Three Way Chamber and between the two of us surveyed Cherty Two Passage.  Once this was done we headed for the surface.

Breakthrough in Water Icicle Close Cavern

I'd been into Water Icicle a couple of weeks before helping with the digging for a few hours, so I knew where the hole was at the bottom of the dig, but I was surprised at the sheer size of it, two weeks on.

Keith in the bottom of the dig, with Pete below in the hole that they discovered below the dig.

As Keith and Pete had told me, it wasn't the safest place in the world, but they had almost finished putting in some scaff bar into the roof, to keep any boulders from falling from above.  Once that was complete they dropped down into the small chamber below.  The gap in the boulders seems fairly bomb proof (certainly enough boulders have been dropped down it) albeit a bit shitty and I landed at the bottom, fairly gingerly, to find myself in a rift leading to the right.  Pete was at the far end of it and Keith away off to the left below me.

It didn't look too promising from where I sat, but Keith wriggled into a gap and then moved out of the way for me to have a look and I could see what he meant.  We started re-arranging the boulders in the chamber until there was a dip in the floor and Keith had removed all the stones he could.

Keith removing boulders from our way on.

We collected some other gear from up above and got the last three large boulders broken up, leaving one large one that was propping up the roof.

Keith got rather excitable at this point and decided that although there was a chunk of rock stuck in the floor, which was proving a bit stubborn, he was going through the hole regardless and slowly wriggled through feet first, kicking stones out of the way as he went. Pete then took his place and between them and a lump hammer, in a couple of minutes they had cleared a way through...

Pete crawling through at the breakthrough point.

and I followed... into open passage.

Pete stood in the first section of new passage.

Around this first left-hand bend, we quickly came to a chamber, quite a large one by Water Icicle standards.  Even in those first few metres, it became clear that the floor was covered in some remarkable mud formations and further on calcite crystal formations, none of which are particularly large or unusual, but, untouched by human hand or foot, completely beautiful and so very delicate,

From the big chamber the main passage continued on to the right and Pete headed off this way, but Keith was getting very excited about a passage up on the left hand side - we had a second passage, which was completely unexpected.  Keith followed Pete and I followed Keith - it could wait for a few minutes, at least.  We followed the main passage, trying to follow a route that caused the least amount of damage through the delicate formations, past a large calcite boss on the left at some breakdown.

Pete and Keith near the calcite boss.

We kept going, surprised by the uniform size of the passage and it's shape, in some places very squared off.  After some hundred metres or so we came to a place where clearly a huge quantity of water had sunk through the boulders, washed clean of mud.  Keith went to investigate, but said that it didn't appear to go down far.

Keith exploring where the water had gone - note the stones in the foreground.

The 'stones' in the foreground of this photo were actually rock covered in calcite, which had then been worn so that the rock had worn away within its shell of calcite - something I don't remember seeing before - they reminded me very much of sea shells.

Some of these were removed to the top of the boulder on the left so that the pitch could be properly explored.

Just a short way further along the passage, was a small section of really pretty calcite crystals...

The sea urchins!

and then the mud floor started to rise, there was a section of really nice mud formations...

Four-five inch mud formations.

A drip point with a ring around it.

and then another section on the left where water had obviously sunk at some point.  The walls had obviously been covered in calcite at some point, but then the water had somehow got down the back of the calcite and worn the rock at the back of it.  The calcite looks as though it's almost peeling away from the wall and the rock is very jagged and brittle looking.

Calcite covered walls where water has obviously sunk.

Just around the corner, the mud became even deeper and forced us to crawl to a section of breakdown.  We had reached the end of this particular passage, but we still had a second one to explore.  We moved slowly back along the passage, spotting new things as we went.

More formation where the dark rock had been worn away from its coating of calcite.

Calcite formations on a wall, much the same as in the 'old' passage.

More calcite crystals, with broken straws.

Rock with calcite formations in/on it... or fossils???

The calcite boss from another angle.

Broken stal.

Crystals.

More broken stal.

And yet more broken stal.

Back in the chamber, we turned right up into the smaller passage and scrambled up a mud bank and a pile of mud covered boulders that had come down an aven just to the left of the passage.  This looked like another promising lead, but the passage continued, so we crawled through and continued along walking-size passage, roughly four-five feet wide.  After a fairly short distance, we reached another breakdown and the end of our exploration for the day.

Around Taddington Vale

Parked up at White Lodge car park, crossed the A6 and followed a path up the very end of the hill opposite and out onto tracks to Priestcliffe.  It started raining as we got out onto the tops and I didn't have a particularly warm top on under my waterproof top and very quickly got cold, to the point where I couldn't stop walking or I'd chill right off.  By the time we reached Priestcliffe, I was seriously flagging because I was desperate for food and quickly running out of energy, but I couldn't stop.  We trudged on and by the time we reached the A6 (having missed a short cut across to Taddington) it had more or less stopped raining, which was a relief.

In the end, we crammed ourselves into a tiny, stone built bus shelter in Taddington, I put my coat on over my waterproof and got the hot chocolate and butties out.  Once revitalised, we continued on down through the village.  I tried to spot the YHA Camping Barn, which a group of us stayed at in February some years ago - not a good place to go armed only with a two-season sleeping bag, I wore nearly all my clothing and was still frozen! - but I must have missed it, can't even remember for sure which side of the road it was.

Below the village we followed a lane, which became a track past Taddington  Field Farm, which became a very steep, very muddy, very slippy path back to the car park.  Near the bottom, perched above a deep gorge, the start of Deep Dale, we stopped to finish off our hot chocolate and then continued to where we'd left the car, with a quick exploration of a small cave on the way.

Quite a good weekends' walking, all in all.  Yesterday 9 miles, today 6 miles, a total of 15.

Tissington, Shining Tor & Parwich

Drove out to Tissington in very thick fog and even put a high vis vest in my rucksack, just in case - we had a road section later.  It wasn't actually raining really as we left the car park on the Tissington Trail, but we knew it would be later.  We followed the trail south, crossed the A515 at the top of Tissington Hill and then shortly after came to another bridge, where we turned northwest and headed off through a caravan park.  We saw a weasel on the track right near the buildings.

We dropped down between two stands of young trees to a stream, which we crossed and headed up the other side of the valley.  After some confusion as to our way on, which wasn't too clearly marked, we got out onto the road and followed it to a ninety degree bend, at which point we took a series of small steps up a bank and into a steep field, across another lane and back into the fields.  Across the fields a strange building loomed out of the mist, which we debated was a barn or quarry building.  I make have to go back for a closer look!!

The strange building, which appears to be for kind of storage.

As the rain began to arrive in earnest, we reached a magnificent lime kiln next to a quarry, where we managed to find enough shelter to stop for a hot drink and a snack.

The lime kiln.

From our snack spot, we continued out onto the top of the hill and followed the very top along to Bostern Grange Farm and from there near to Shining Tor with fabulous views up the Dove valley.

Dove Dale (left of centre) and our way on directly above Paul's head.

We dropped into a small valley, which leads down to Green Lane.  Having reached a sheltered spot, we decided to stop for lunch and had just got our sandwiches out and I'd commented on the fact that it was dry again, when it started snowing!!  After our break we followed the small valley down to the lane.  I remember plodding very slowly up this valley some months ago and thinking how long and steep it was, but I must have been very tired that day, because it really isn't!!

We followed Green Lane up to the A515, turned right and walked a short way along the grass verge, which was quite wide (I didn't need my high vis vest after all).  Then at a point on the road that I know well, which must catch quite a few people out because it's a blind high point with a bend thrown in for good measure, we left the road and hopped over a stile back into the fields and under the Tissington Trail.  The last section of our walk was across fields and into valleys and villages that I've often looked at from the A515 on my way to and from work and longed to explore.  Somehow it wasn't quite as exciting as I'd hoped it might be, but that may have been because of the rain, which started to come down in torrents for the last couple of miles of our walk.

The view across the valley from just below Parwich Lees.

The village of Parwich.

There was one deep, steep-sided valley between Parwich and Tissington, on the Limestone Way, that was really hard work, but the reward was a really dinky squeeze stile with a tiny gate at the bottom.

The squeeze stile.

The last section of the walk was along lanes back into Tissington village, through very muddy and wet fields.  The ducks in Tissington were having a wonderful time sploshing around in the puddles on the road, they didn't need the pond!!

Abney, Abney Clough & Eyam Moor

Drove over to Sir William Hill Road and parked. It was heaving with people about to do an orienteering event, starting on the route over the moor that I’d originally thought to set off on, so we opted to go around the opposite way. Actually I think it worked better.

Looking across Bretton Clough, Hathersage in the far distance.

Finally left the hordes at Nether Bretton, where we continued a short distance and dropped down through the fields, back into their busy-ness for a short while and then up the other side of the valley.

 

 The top end of Bretton Clough with Cockey Farm and Abney in the distance.

Strange ant-like people apparently running around in circles.  I'm sure they think cavers are mad too!!

We climbed quite a way up through the bracken and then stopped for a quick drink of hot chocolate and watched the ants going about their orienteering below.  Passed to the east (right) of Cockey Farm and into Abney. I felt pretty knackered by that time and was wondering how I’d manage the climb up from Stoke Ford. From there we dropped down into the delights of wooded Abney Clough, what a pretty, peaceful, place it was too.

Abney Clough, peaceful and pretty, but also very shady on the north side of Abney Low.

We stopped about a hundred yards above Stoke Ford (luckily) and had our lunch.

Near Stoke Ford.

By the time we headed on down to Stoke Ford and started on the long climb up onto the tops of Eyam Moor, all the nutters had disappeared (thankfully) and we took our time.

Looking southwest up Bretton Clough.

There was a bit of a debate about which route to take once we reached the moor, the one we took from Leadmills the other week, or the one we’d intended to take that morning, but eventually went with the latter. Lovely walk.

Bradford Dale

After our usual lunch at Byways Cafe in Bakewell, Joan and I went for a wander in Bradford Dale and passed within a few feet of this beautiful heron.

It was a little damp (!) during our walk, but we had the whole dale all to ourselves.  Delightful!