it was May Bank holiday. It was also a non-firing public access day at the Warcop Training Area. So when better to go go these two obscure hills promoted to Nuttalls in 2016? There is a car park in Hilton at the start to the track up Scordale. Off I went on a beautiful May day. After half an hour a dog surprised me running round my legs and turning I saw the woman walking him.  I waited for her to overtake but she never did and when I looked again she was gone. When I came to the bridge I took a path that goes off right up Swindale Edge, up onto high ground and down to cross Christy Bank Syke. by this point the right of way is marked by regular posts but there is nothing on the ground you would call a path. Not a problem as the terrain is pleasant and grassy making or easy walking. I left the track at the highest point and easily bagged my two Nuttals. The map showed a landrover track zigzagging down hill from here so I went to check that out and followed it down. I met the farmer on the way down patrolling his sheep on a motorbike. He was friendly and stopped for a chat. Sharing your sheep farm with the MoD sounded a complicated affair. On this beautiful bank holiday Saturday he and the vanishing dogwalking woman were the only human souls I met. The North Pennines are not so popular. Following an easy path back to my car I wondered what Ambleside or Keswick might be like today. 

Would I like to rewrite this with AI, I am asked. And they offer me this: "The car park adjacent to the Plough Inn is reserved for customers, while the lay-by in front offers public parking. I opted for the latter and proceeded to walk along the riverbank up to the stepping stones. A designated right of way ascends through grassy slopes to Offerton Hall. Beyond this point, a trail skirts the northern boundary of Offerton Moor. Upon intersecting with a road, a leftward path runs alongside a wall, leading onto a plateau. Here, a distinct trail emerges, guiding one to the summit of Shatton Edge. While the river valley was bustling, the solitude of the high plateau was mine alone. On my return, I revisited the Hall but chose a loftier route that descended to Callow Farm and meandered through Callow Wood." Thanks but I think I will manage by myself, 

There is parking space at the top of the minor road over Dane Head from where it is a very short easy walk to the top of Cheeks Hill. A very short walk downhill from there leads to the corner of a wall that is the county summit of Staffordshire. Good paths over the moors lead from there to Axe Edge End then minor roads lead through Hill Top to Oxenstich Farm. From here I set off heading more or less straight or the summit of Oliver Hill. The terrain was pathless and horrible. From the top I went NW to meet up with the path going south from Oxenstich. THis was much easier and I would have had a much easier life going up this same way.  From there up the road to Orchard Common - passing Readyleech Green a lot of unfriendly dogs barked furiously at me but were safely enclosed - and so back to the start.

I parked on the road between Peak Forest and Old Dam. Easy to do even on a sunny Sunday in May. And followed the track up by Conies Farm that turns onto a path that gently rises onto Slitherstone Hill. There were sheep here. Lots of sheep. The summit is off the path a bit and requires clambering over a gate. I headed back  by the front of Rowter Farm. At the T-junction of paths just south of the farm I was surprised to find a coffee shop. It's a horse box conversion on the back of a land rover run by the local farm to supplement their income. Apparently it was their second day in business. The Victoria sponge was very good. It was a pleasant walk back from here down Oxlow Rake. 

Is this the easiest Ethel? Surely it must be. I parked in Green Lane and walked up to the east side by the junior school. Loads of paths lead up to the obvious top where there is a tower put up in the 19th century by the Dukes of Devonshire who owned the place back then. I came down a little further west by Poole's Cavern where there is a cafe and loos. 

I parked at Dove Stone Reservoir and walked up the valley by Yeoman Hey reservoir and Greenfield Reservoir and along Greenfield Brook to where the river branches where I went left up Birchen Clough. This is a really delightful easy scramble. Then I walked along the edge past the crazy frog rock (I don't think that is the official name) and the Trinnacle then over pathless mossy ground to the top of Ashway Moss, Then there is a path straight down to Ashway Gap and so back to start. 

With Teemu and Vilma. one of my favourite walks with two of my favourite people. I have lost count how many times I have done this. Park by bridge in Bakewell. Down Coombes Road. Left at Alpacas. Over golf course. Up through trees. Over Calton Pasture, that magical place. Through New Piece Wood. Down to Edensor. (Lots of fallow deer around here today.) Down River to Garden Centre. Up to Calton Houses. Right at Plantation and across south bit Calton Pasture and so home.  Then we drove to the Crispin at Great Longstone for food. Lovely day. 

The 1:25,000 OS map - but not the 1:50,000 - shows a path approaching Hob Hurst's House from a minor road a couple of kilometres to the east. A little north of where this starts, just round a corner, is a place you can park. So I did. Down to start of path where a stile gives access to path. It's a pretty scruffy path but its a path. Pretty muddy today but this spring everywhere is. From Hob Hurst's House I walked along the top of the moor to the summit of Beeley Moor where there is a grouse butt. There was a vestigial path some of the time but it was rough going then more of the same to the trig point, From the trig point a few yards leads to the road which can be followed back got the start. But to reach itt there is a double barbed wire fence and wall to cross. There is no gate or stile or any other break until the stile I started at and at my age doing gymnastic things on barbed wire fences is no longer so easy as it was, The wall has points of weaknesses where it ids damaged. The fence does not. There is a path of sorts follows the fence o the moorland side. I followed it for a bit but got fed up and did a little gymnastics. Thence an easy walk on tarmac back to car.        

​There is a place to park in Perry Dale halfway between Peak Forest and Perryfoot opposite the driveway leading to Slacksdale Farm. It was a easy walk from here to the top of Gautries Hill, up the road a bit, through the woods on a footpath and then up across a big field full of sheep. I got back to where I parked cutting directly across the stragely empty fields to Nether Barn. I went down the road a bit then through a gate ad up a track to the west ed of a narrow strip of woodland halfway up Eldon Hill. On past the sinister gash that is Eldon Hole and so up Eldon Hill. A few sheep around. No cows. And no people. It had looked busy driving through Castleton but up here it was only me. Walking down towards Old Dam I saw where all the cows were, cooped up in barns still. I did see a young calf in a field by the village with some goats for friends. And coming out the village back towards my parked car a couple of llamas.  Llamas 2, cows 1. A rare win for team llama