Pathfinder Guide - White Peak: Walk - 22 Beresford and Wolfscote Dales. Distance: 8 miles. Suggested duration: 4 hours.
This is a part of the Peak District I never quite reached in the past. The walk included two gorgeous villages. Alstonefield is ridiculously beautiful and soaked in history. It's there in every limestone brick and every millstone window frame. And Hartington is also lovely with its village pond, its noble thirteenth century church and its cheese factory - all surrounded by verdant pastures defined by miles of painstakingly constructed limestone walls. Each village is home to around three hundred residents.
Stretches of the walk run alongside the River Dove which burbles and sings over weirs in the deep cleft that is Wolfscote Dale. There you see caves and marvel at the way in which The Earth and her primordial oceans created so much limestone millions of years before human beings evolved from the ape men.
I visited "The George" in Alstonefield where I drank my usual pint of orange cordial with soda water and ice. Lunch was a packet of salt and vinegar crisps and I sat out on a bench with the little village green before me. Weatherwise, September 3rd was a splendid day. T-shirt and shorts time and I thought I'd try out my new boots at long last. I bought them in "Lidl" when they were on offer. My other boots are still caked in bog mud from the walk I took last Friday up to Black Hill. The new boots were okay and I'm glad I've now broken them in without great discomfort.
Such a perfect walk in clement weather with sweat on my brow. Such rambles make you glad to be alive. So for a flavour of Walk 22, here's another small gallery. Hope you like 'em:-
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| Signpost in the centre of Hartington |
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| Brown cows resting in How Narrowdale |
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| Junction of paths near Greenhills Cottage |
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| "The George" in Alstonefield |
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| St Peter's Church, Alstonefield |
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| Limestone barn on the way to Gipsy Bank |
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| The River Dove in Wolfscote Dale |
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| Caves and visitors beneath Frank's Rock |
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| Back to Hartington and St Giles's Church |
Beautiful...just beautiful. Funnily enough a friend at work suggested these two places as great to visit not long ago. Was it a 4 hour-ish walk?
ReplyDeleteLIBBY I dallied in Alstonefield - at the pub and around the old church but basically yes - I''d say four hours would cover it nicely and it's not such hard-going though there is a steep grassy bank (Gipsy Bank) down into Wolfscote Dale and there are currently quite a lot of nettles on the thin path there from Alstonefield - not nice when you're just wearing shorts! If you do go, make sure you pick a nice day. You'll love it I'm sure! Park in the market place at Hartington (free!) and then take the path between the pottery and the WC's. Get a drink at "The George" - just under halfway.
ReplyDeleteThe view over Hartington and St Giles's Church looks very English, like Midsomer. I can imagine some murder lurking behind the headstones!
ReplyDeleteSHOOTING PARROTS In spite of your insinuation, I can confirm that at no time did I ever "lurk" behind the headstones!It was Colonel Mustard what done it guv!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures of your beautiful countryside YP. I liked the stone buildings, green country and that river shot I am going to use as a screen picture on my computer - Dave
ReplyDeleteDAVE Thanks for dropping by and I am most delighted that you plan to use my river shot as your screen picture. Love to NZ.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely day!
ReplyDeleteNow to check out this Dave fellow challenging my position as ambassador of NZ.