Monyash to Castleton

We drove through Buxton then down Winnats Pass to Castleton. I'm so old that I still forget this is the approach road to Castleton; at the time I was regularly travelling to the Castleton area from the west, the approach by car was on the main A625, past Whaley Bridge and Chapel en the Frith, then beneath Mam Tor. There was a massive landslip in 1974 (the year before I left home for University) and after attempts at maintenance, the road was abandoned in 1979. Anyway, for today, the lovely Winnats Pass it was, down past Speedwell Cavern, and we were soon in Castleton's main car park at SK149829. The past two mornings had been misty; today wasn't until we reached the top of Winnats Pass at which point it turned positively foggy, though my photo up from Castleton to Peveril Castle doesn't do justice to the wonderful atmospheric feel to the place.

I parked in an out-of-the-way corner (though the person coming through the private entrance to the left of the car must have been irritated that she had to negotiate my car, whilst the rest of the car park was just about empty) and Richard had some difficulty with the first pay and display machine he went to. We'd known that we needed cash, but only had £8 in cash left. The car park costs £6 for up to 10 hours but I was a little anxious we might need longer, so we'd planned to pay the £7 rate for up to 24 hours. But the machine wasn't working properly and, before Richard realised there was a problem, it had swallowed quite a lot of our cash and refused to return £2. So we only had £6 left, so had to take a slight risk on timing, AND it actually cost us £8 to park. Mutter! The iPhone App routed us back to Monyash (which is only about 7 miles north of our cottage), by a more easterly route via Ashford in the Water, and by 8:55 we had parked back in the free car park at SK149667 and I had popped back down to the Green, which was very much quieter than yesterday.

The Limestone Way passes right past the place we had parked, and we continued along the road for a short distance to the north, then took a green lane (Blackwell Lane) on the left and climbed slightly. It was easy walking through and we continued on a track to a road, which took us to the village of Flegg. Here I was so busy watching the cows walking down the road to be milked that I almost headed in the wrong direction. We continued on minor roads for another mile or so; it was very pleasant walking, a view shared by a walker coming the other way, and progress was rapid. Back on a track (Sough Lane) we reached a scarp slope and descended to the A6 by the Waterloo Inn. I was looking for somewhere to stop to change my socks and there was some shade by the pub, but there was also a yappy dog so we kept going. However, after crossing the A6 and taking a minor road on the other side, we soon found a suitable place to stop, then we climbed again, on another track.

We soon began to get views down to Miller's Dale ahead of us, and we descended, depressingly aware that we'd need to climb again, up the other side of the valley. We have followed part of the Monsal Trail through Miller's Dale before, but we were further to the west today. We followed the road along the valley, close to the River Wye, passing the former station buildings and underneath a spectacular double viaduct carrying the disused railway line, now the Monsal Trail. After passing the village church, we took a track to our left. This climbed through woodland, emerging above Monksdale Farm and higher above Monk's Dale. We scrambled up above the path and found a lovely spot to stop for lunch, saying hello to two other couples of walkers who passed.

We eventually tore ourselves away from our vantage point and continued along the track, which runs parallel with Monk's Dale. Near Monksdale House we turned left (west) and descended to the Dale. It was also of significance to us the Pennine Bridleway (which links to the Midshires Way and may be the route we use to head further north) also follows the road we were now on, with the south to north route of the Pennine Bridleway climbing up the road i.e. heading to the east, before turning left (to the north) by Monksdale House at the point at which we had approached from the south. We parted company with the Pennine Bridleway and turned right to follow the continuation of Monk's Dale, which is called Peter Dale. It was an attractive dry valley, which in turn continued into Hay Dale at Dale Head. We stopped for a break in the shade of a tree, saying hello to a friendly dog-walker. Eventually, at the head of Hay Dale we took a track to the right and climbed out of the succession of dry valleys. We turned left onto a road (actually the same road we'd left not that far to the south, at Monksdale Farm) and followed this past the appropriately-named Limestone Way Farm to the main A623 opposite Mount Pleasant Farm.

Although this point on the road is best identified on the OS map by Mount Pleasant Farm opposite, what I remember from my childhood and then from visits to see my Mum as an adult is the steep hill and double bend just to the west, down towards the village of Peak Forest. When driving up the hill on those journeys, there always seemed to be a slow-moving vehicle in front, and there were plenty of those today too! We crossed the road and climbed up a track, with a man who was replacing a gate being most impressed by the distance we had walked today; so was I! - I was getting tired. Near the buildings called "The Cop" on the OS Map, we went through a gate onto a path and soon had our final climb of the Limestone Way, emerging to quite a different, more open landscape; this was Old Moor. We stopped for a rest in a rather small and nettly spot by a wall and changed maps from Outdoor Leisure Sheet 24 "The Peak District: White Peak area" to Sheet 1 "Dark Peak area". This revealed it was just a little over two miles to Castleton and, with the climbs behind us, I thought it would be easy walking.

We crossed the moorland, taken a circuitous route to avoid a pond at which cows were drinking, creating a larger muddy area. Then the descent began, through Cave Dale. We were soon back in attractive classic limestone scenery; Cave Dale is thought to have been formed as a result of a collapsed cave system, which in turn was formed by water dissolving the rock. As we descended, we passed very close to Peak Cavern, though the entrance is round the other side, and there were spectacular views to Peveril Castle, up on the top of the hill ahead. There were now quite a lot of people about, presumably because this is a popular route out of Castleton. However the walking was not a stroll in the park; we were descending quite steeply on a stony path, conditions that I always find quite difficult. I prefer going up this sort of path than down it, but I don't think that would have been sufficient justification to walk the whole path in the conventional north to south direction.

Slow and steady progress brought us to the gate and sign indicating the distances back to Rocester and Matlock, and to the village of Castleton itself. We decreed the route to end at the attractive green by the war memorial, and where the former Castleton Youth Hostel (which I remember) was located - the hostel moved up the road to Losehill Hall in 2012. We had completed today's walk without needing to worry at all about the fact that we had parked for a "mere" 10 hours, but we still needed to celebrate the end of the lovely Limestone Way, and the tea shops were either closed or on the point of closing. Fortunately, there was a kiosk still open serving local Bradwells Ice Cream, and there were benches outside the Visitor Centre by the car park opposite.