A Breath of Fresh Air

 I mentioned in my last post that we were hoping to get out for a longer walk and yesterday we did just that.  

After the wind and rain of Friday and before the wind and rain of today we drove up to the village of Hartington which is on the Tissington Trail.

The Tissington trail starts at Ashbourne and ends at Parsley Hay where it joins the High Peak Trail.  We have, over the years, walked all of the trail.  This time we just walked from Hartington to Parsley Hay.

The sun was showing its face, the breeze was brisk and the views were stunning.

A patchwork quilt of fields edged with dry stone walling

The trail itself is easy going underfoot and follows part of the old railway line which ran between Ashbourne and Buxton.

The railway cutting just before Parsley Hay.

We passed a farm and there were lambs in the fields already.

I love to hear them bleating, mums and lambs calling to each other.

A brown sheep and lamb in a field of six camping pods.

The wind picked up and the light changed

Luckily we got back to the car and had just left the car park as the rain started.

It was back to wind and rain again today.

A Bit More of the Trail

On Saturday we set out early to try and walk a bit more of the High Peak Trail. You will remember from previous posts that we had already done three sections from Cromford to Black Rock, from Black Rock to Middleton top and from Middleton Top to Harboro Rocks - BTTWI (before Tommy Tank was ill). This time we went up to Parsley Hay and walked towards the other end of the trail, where it meets the Pennine Bridleway, at Dowlow. Doing the trail bit by bit means that by the end we will have walked it 'there and back' because, of course, we have to walk the same bit twice each time. We have decided that we can do the last bit in two sections as well, that is Parsley Hay to Friden and then Friden to Harboro Rocks. A couple of years ago we walked the towpath of the Trent and Mersey Canal in much the same way until we had walked it all from Stone to the Harecastle Tunnel at Kidsgrove.

On the way up to Parsley Hay we decided to stop at Hartington and have a walk round and some breakfast before setting out on the 7 mile walk. I think it is one of the prettiest villages in the area, complete with village green and duck pond. In summer it heaves with tourists but on Saturday it was very quiet just a few brave souls venturing out into the early cool breeze to mingle with the locals waiting for the bus to Buxton, wandering home from the local shop with their morning milk and newspaper or taking rubbish to the local amenity lorry which had irritatingly, for me, parked by the duck pond - so no photos of that I'm afraid.

This is a view across the village green to the old cottages and the church in the distance. There is a tea shop in the old post office, a dairy and my favourite place - the Cheese shop.


More photos of the trail later.