Bonsall to Monyash

It was misty this morning, which led to some lovely atmospheric views, especially when we were looking down from above on mist lying in valleys. It also kept the temperature lower than would otherwise be the case, which was a relief. However, as yesterday, even when the sun came out, it remained rather humid. I'd realised that the blister I got yesterday was caused by a slightly rough area on the inside of my spare pair of summer walking books (my usual pair having been left at home because their insoles slip, which has also been known to cause blisters). So I decided to wear my "winter" boots, which are leather but still lightweight, and this proved a good solution. The double layer of my "1000 mile" socks and similar seemed very effective at keeping my feet relatively dry.

Monyash, the end of today's leg, is not too far from our cottage and it was an easy drive there, by way of the A515. Monyash, like Ellastone earlier in the week, has a free car park (in this case at SK149667) with a donations box, and again this was most useful to us. We'd decided there was no need to retrace our steps all the way from Matlock, and we'd found a car park at SK280579 on the outskirts of Bonsall, this time free without any expectation of donations. Much better than paying £6 for a day's parking in Matlock and having to climb up from the town! Although we’d saved a long of effort by parking in Bonsall rather than Matlock, and we were very happy to return to such an attractive place, we still had the start by climbing up to Upper Town in order to rejoin the main part of the Limestone Way.

At the point where we had turned right yesterday, we carried just about straight on and continued to climb slightly, with absolutely stunning views down into the mist-filled valleys. At Monklands Lane we turned left, then we cut diagonally to a track which ran above Monyash. We’d been disappointed that the path doesn’t actually go through the village, but this would have been an unnecessary descent and ascent, so we didn’t bother to divert in order to do so, and our route was nice. We had occasional views down to the village, and attractive views beyond. We reached the road at ‘Bank Top’ and immediately opposite there was the Monyash “Ore House”, akin to a bank vault, where valuable but heavy iron ore was stored. More importantly, round the back there was a big enough patch of shade for us to use while having an apple and a break. A number of other walkers and cyclists came past.

We continued past Elton and descended on the very minor and peaceful Duckwood Lane, before taking a track on the left just as the road reached the more major B5056 to the west of Birchover. The following few miles were absolutely glorious walking, and it was all completely new to us. So much for me thinking I know the Peak District! The path took us between the Cratcliffe Rocks and the twin crags of Robin Hood's Stride, apparently the source of many local legends. We then went close to "Nine Stones" stone circle; only four of the stones remain, but it is an attractive place. A brief section of road walking took us to a lovely wood, which also provided us with a useful lunch spot in the shade. A couple of walkers (presumably out from Youlgrave) came past, with the man wearing rather smart shoes that looked somewhat out of place here.

And so to Youlgrave. Again, we had been a little disappointed to find that, although the guidebook shows photos of Youlgrave, the route of the LImestone Way doesn't actually go through the village itself (which on this occasion is up a hill, again aligned roughly parallel with our route). However, our route turned out to be delightful. We reached the River Bradford and crossed it on a clapper bridge, then followed alongside the river through Bradford Dale for about a mile, at one point crossing to the other side on another clapper bridge. The river is renowned for the purity of its water and people were swimming in one of the ponds, whilst others were walking alongside the river like us. Eventually, we crossed the river again and climbed up through attractive woodland to a road which we followed for a while before cutting across to the car park shown on the OS map at SK194645. The number of people walking by the river had declined as we left Youlgrave behind, but there were still a fair number, presumably because of this car park. I suspect that many of these were following the same circular walk, with some rather dodgy instructions, because we were twice asked for directions to Youlgrave, including by a dog-walker we passed on the road section, who was relieved when we told her that it was not all along a road.

A goodly number of walkers were following the route that we took to the north west of the car park, which crossed agricultural land, at one point passing a group of large white cows, with the bull surrounded by his harem. It was easy walking but we knew we had a steep descent and ascent remaining, and I was getting hot and tired. We began to get good views to Lathkill Dale with its characteristic limestone features, then we descended steeply into Cales Dale, which runs into Lathkill Dale to the north, but we were going straight ahead, from east to west. There wasn't anywhere suitable to sit at the bottom, but after a short climb we found a very suitable place for a short break, in the shade by a limestone cliff. Walkers going the other way told us how lovely the cool of the caves was in the main Lathkill Dale. We weren't going that way, but our climb out of Cales Dale wasn't as difficult as I had feared, and the remaining mile and a half of walking to Monyash was straightforward.

As we'd walked past One Ash Grange Farm on the route from Cales Dale, we'd noticed that they were advertising ice creams for sale, but we weren't sure if they were open, or what the extent of the stock would be, so we didn't investigate properly. However, in the centre of Monyash, abutting the Village Green and next to the Bull's Head pub, we found the Old Smythy Cafe, doing a roaring trade in ice creams from a hatch). This was just what was needed, so we bought two ice creams and ate them sitting on the green before walking the very short distance back to the car.

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