​A return visit after twelve days. Again I parked in Shillito Wood and walked down to where the paths branch. This time I took the right branch north up to Smeekley Farm. I wanted to investigate climbing the hill in Smeekley Wood but the signage was very forbidding. Private land. No public access. To get a decent dose of exercise I walked up Car Road to the A621 and down and back by the left branch path to return to the car park followed by a stroll to visit the two wayside crosses hereabouts.

​It was a scorching hot April Saturday and the Peak District was clearly very busy. I was not surprised to find the car park at Miller’s Dale full up and having to wait about for someone to leave before I could park. I followed the Monsal Trail west for a short while to a viaduct. Here a path on the right leads down into Cheedale. It was very busy down here but beautiful. There were red campion everywhere. The path has the odd steepening where you have to scramble easily up and down -in this direction mostly down – limestone steps. They are very polished and would be treacherous in wet conditions . And of course there are the famous stepping stones as the river passes under spectacular limestone crags. There were queues here today.   

​After a couple of miles the path goes under a viaduct and then soon after another one. Here the Pennine Bridleway crosses the Dale and  tried right and followed it up a big hill which seemed very big in the intense heat to Mosley Farm which is currently a building site The Bridleway takes a long circuitous way round to Wormhill but for pedestrians there is a shortcut along a track leading to Hassop Farm. I walked through the village where there is an elaborate memorial to the distinguished engineer James Brindley born in this parish then turned back onto the Pennine Bridgeway which took me down to the north edge of Monk’s Dale. The ground here is rough and they’re is nothing like the crowds of Chee Dale. In the mile and half walk down the Dale I met one group of three people and that was all. Eventually I reached a footbridge off to the right which I crossed and climbed up to the road just above the now much emptier car park. .      

I was planning to go to Ladybower but the A57 was closed for roadworks so I thought I would try Hathersage. It was a weekday so parking might be feasible. It was, though my OS app showed a red cow icon right where the car park is indicating an impassible animal hazard of which there was no sign. From the main street I headed on BaulkLane  to a point just west of Bronte Cottage. From here there is a path over a field into a wood and over a footbridge to follow some more fields to Green’s House. The fields were yellow with dandelion and lesser celandine. I carried on up the track to Dennis Knoll carpark then up the long diagonal track leading onto Stanage Edge. I took a short cut, steep but straightforward up the right hand side of a small gully with a dry stone wall on the left. Once on the Edge I headed north to the north trig point then south to the south one. From there it was a steep descent to the road which I crossed and headed diagonally over the moor towards the other road picking up the path down to Callow just before I reached it. I was on the road again soon after passing Callow which is currently a building site. To avoid pounding tarmac I got back to Hathersage  by the track to Toothill Farm and the churchyard. 

​I parked in the big Trans Pennine Trail carpark by the bridge at Dunford Bridge and headed east down the trail. This is straight and easy and busy with walkers, horse riders and cyclists. Lots of families out on bike with little children. After about two miles I left the trail to climb up and over a bridge then south over moors to cross the A628. Then on past the ruined Far Swindon farmhouse and over fields full of sheep with new lambs to turn right down a track named Swinden Lane on the map. Right at the end to join the road again at Milton Lodge then I followed the road to the Dog and Partridge Inn. (There is a pavement so not too unpleasant.) Then I turned right onto a track which the map tells is part of the Barnsley Boundary Walk. 

​This climbs the moors and ends up crossing a fence and following right alongside the road. There is an ample grass verge so it is safe enough but quite unpleasant partly from the traffic noise but more from the huge volume of litter around which is utterly dispiriting. When I got to the foot of High Nab I turned right and climbed to the top then headed for the path on the map heading up to the west of the Upper Windleden Reservoir. I spend a while thinking the path was a bit rubbish only to meet a better path coming in from  my left which was probably the path I meant to be on all along. It gets very up and down skirting by the reservoir. A couple of geese got a bit agitated – I guess I may have been close to their nest. A final climb took me to the road and then gently down back to the start.    

Bolsterstone is a pretty village that feels a lot posher than Stocksbridge a short walk over fields to the north. I found roadside parking on Stone Moor Road. I followed a path east from the village that follows the top of a high edge to Hollim Edge Farm over fields and woodland. After the farm, now a track, it descends through woodlands which today were a wonderful display of bluebells. On the way down I passed a little sculpture remembering the Wantley Dragon slain according to an old ballad by the valiant More of the nearby More Hall. ​

Soon after this I was on the road where I turned left and soon reached a road on my right leading into the woods. Signs say it is a private road and discourage unauthorised motor vehicles but from the number of cars parked at the other end I think nobody takes any notice. When I got to the reservoir where all the cars were parked I turned left and crossed the dam. Up to this point I met nobody but here it started to get a little busier with lots of dog walkers. I walked along the south side of More Hall Reservoir and was going to do the same with Broomhead Reservoir but there seemed to be no access. (Looking online after I think I maybe could have accessed the south bank bah the reservoir - another time.) I headed through the new build houses in Ewden villiage to reach the path on the north shore which I followed a short way before striking into the woods to try to find a track shown on the map leading back towards the road. This was not where it was supposed to be but after a bit of pathless stumbling around I found a good path which led to a track which led to the road. I followed this, grateful for a pavement, back to the village.  ​

 I parked at Upper Burbage Bridge on near the top of Ringinglow Road. From the car park west of the ridge you can go up Higger Tor by the low path below the crags or the high path above them. I took the high path which stays very close to the road most off the way. The road is so height is an easy climb. Finding a way down to the south there are many possible ways some pleasantly scrarnbly, Then is easy and costly down onto Carl Wark. From here I descended to the Toad's Mouth which is just west of lower Burbage Bridge near the Fox House. I crossed the bridge, carefully as there is no pavement to speak of. Back to the upper bridge there is again a low way below the crags or a high way above them, I took the low way, a track called Green Lane. The walk back along it to where I was parked is gently but relentlessly uphill.  

I parked at the Shillito Wood car park. From here a path not marked on the map leads down onto Ramsley moor where it soon meets a track going north that is marked on the map at a point where it branches. I took the left branch. Only the right is marked as a public right of way but it is all access land so it makes no difference.  I followed this north though woodlands and a brown  ocean of dead ferns. After about a mile it turns left and climbs up to the road about a kilometre south of Owler Bar. I crossed and headed across Big Moor on a track the first few minutes on which involved running the gauntlet of a big gang of cows but they were very placid and grazed on, ignoring me. Probably the same cows I met 29th June last year. I followed the track, taking a left by the house by the reservoir and so back to the road. Almost opposite is a path back into the woods of Ramsley Moor which began with another herd of pleasingly relaxed cows for me to walk through. The path took me to Ramsley Reservoir ,  through the woods to Ramsley Reservoir and onto Fox Lane which I followed back to the car park.  

I parked by the A57 by Ashopton by Ladybower Reservoir and waked through the hamlet then stuck on the path that stays close to the road until almost Moscar House. Then there is a path along the north side of a wall that heads off west. I started out on the south side instead which was not smart. Don't do that.I followed this for about a mile to reach the micro-top at the borttom of Derwent Edge with a 454m sort height on the map. Then a path took ke down past the Hurkling Stones and Whinstone Lee Tor south through the woods and back to where I parked.  

I parkled in Langsett Road North in the middle of Oughtibridge. There were crocuses in flower on the village green. I walked through Senescal Park then followed the road to the field below Coumes Wood. I had passed this way on 5th January 7 and remembered the sign saying there was a bull in the field which, again, there wasn't.  I followed the path along the north edge of Coumes Wood and then into it. The path on the OS map goes west to meet a track just north of Coumes Vale. But before I got there I came to a footbridge that was in desperate disrepair, rotting away and falling apart. I didn\'t fancy crossing it. Happily there is a path not marked the map that stays north of the river and eats the same track a little further north where bitterns sharply right and throws off a branch to the ;left towards Lumb Biush and another to the north. I followed the left branch to the edge of the wood and then a path across the d=edge of a field to meet the road at Onesmoor Bottom. I followed the road NW to the crossroad and then followed the field path, watched by horses, to the top of Onemoor. Then back Lumb Lane and I pounded tarmac back down the hill to Oughtibridgel  

With Helen. There are places to park a few cars just south of Carlingill Bridge. Between the bridgte and these spaces there is a hill, And on this hill this January day was a big sheet of ice. This took a bit of getting up in Helen’s very very powerful little Peugeot. But we made it and we parked and we trudged up over Linghaw to  Fell Head and back. Only not quite. We got as far as the 623 spot height on the OS may a little west of the top when we met a mountain rescue team who asked would we mind not carrying on as they didn’t want us to disturb their seach and rescue dogs that were up ahead trying to find a missing person. No arguing with that so down we came. Fell Head can wait for another day.