Postscripts from The Peak District (42) - Wildboarclough, Gradbach, Wincle

Tuesday 25th February 2014

Still in pursuit of Talwin, the first alien... & out walking on my own today!

Parked at the tiny village of Wildboarclough, wedged between one of the wilder stretches of the A54 & Shutlingsloe & Macc Forest to the north... a beautiful spot!

The rather dully-named Clough Brook runs through Wildboarclough.... but is probably more likely to have given its name to the village than any wild boar!

Lovely start but now a fierce climb up Berry Bank!

Had fun with a cache beneath a very low-level footbridge on this climb... I usually leave those for Les!

This is a view over to the hills I was walking with Les yesterday!

And there's Shutlingsloe again! Not on today's route but inhabited by another alien!

Passed an Ice Cream Farm (!) before crossing the high open moor & descending to the Youth Hostel, currently being refurbished, at Gradbach

From here I followed the River Dane, County boundary between Cheshire & Staffordshire, through lovely woodland & spectacular gorges back to Danebridge & Wincle!

A quick pint here at 'The Ship' in Wincle before picking up one cache I'd failed to find on the first day & then heading, via country lanes, back to Wildboarclough

A 'Ship' on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border?

Look at the sign!

This is Shackleton's 'Nimrod' on his first, less famous, visit to the Antarctic: Sir Philip Brocklehurst of nearby Swythamley Hall sailed with him as Assistant Geologist!

Postscripts from The Peak District (41) - Higher Sutton & Langley

Monday 24th February 2014

If I had to pinpoint a moment when the geocaching bug really bit me I'd have to say it was the day before this wonderful walk!

Two days ago a geocaching extravaganza had been published: seven interlinking walks with a total of 383 caches leading to one final super-bonus box! The theme was 'The Alien Landings' & the search was on to find the Black Box from their crashed 'Mothership'.... how could I not investigate when this was so close to home?!

I'd tackled my chosen first stage yesterday, walking out of Wincle (home of a fine micro-brewery), & was now back with Les to see how close we could get to securing our first alien!

A field-full of friendly alpacas, on our way south through rolling-farmland towards the A54

The 'Wild Boar' Inn on the main A54 road - didn't look too busy... and the pub wasn't open!

Took a bit of a detour 'to cut off a corner' & ended up wandering by some wonderful places!

Knew that, at some point, we were heading up to the top of that flat-topped hill.... but that was going to be a totally different alien!

Les below Shutlingsloe - wasn't going to be the last time I could say that!

A splendid diversion to Oakenclough &, at last, an open pub.... overlooking the route of our morning outward jaunt!

'The Hanging Gate'.... with a postal address of Langley though it's quite some distance & a good deal higher than the village itself!

Splendid spot & my 10th new pub of the year!

The fourth highest pub in England, it's been serving ale since 1621!

Don't know much about this outpost of Sutton Lane Ends but if the village sign is anything to go by it's the source of many of Shakespeare's plays... a lot of his plots were based on Hollinshead's Chronicles!

On our way down, now, to the muddiest of conclusions... but an excellent day, for all of that!

A geocaching 'trackable', whose owner had wanted it to be left in places with interesting names... I had been aiming for 'Hanging Gate' but that looked a little vulnerable: left it a little lower midst Pot Lords, Fernlee & Lowerhouse!

Postscripts from The Peak District (40) - Tissington Trail, Hartington

Friday 21st February 2014

A brief geocaching jaunt with Les, Jamie, Kirstie & Abner &, as you can probably see from the photos, it was bitterly cold.... but beautiful! (see Postscripts 31 & 34)

Parked at the old Hartington railway station & wandered along the Tissington Trail, former Ashbourne to Buxton railway line

Finishing off a geocaching series involving Tissy & Parsley.... a pair of mice!

Waste heaps created from the stone cut in the construction of the railway at the end of the 19th century

Short walk today as Abner wasn't very well & the wind was taking no prisoners!

Postscripts from The Peak District (39) - Cheddleton

Thursday 20th February 2014

A lunchtime geocaching meander around the grounds of the old St.Edward's Psychiatric Hospital... now a new housing development incorporating some of the old hospital buildings (see, also, Postscripts 5 & 20)

Also known as the Cheddleton County Mental Asylum, the hospital opened in 1899 & was finally closed to patients in 2002

The Asylum Chapel, a listed building but looking rather run-down & neglected

Home, however, to an intriguing geocache!

... and this is it!

A hidden camera masquerading as a letterbox had my picture published on the internet even before I got home!

Postscripts from The Peak District (38) - Rolleston-on-Dove

Wednesday 19th February 2014

I've finally accepted that there's no way I'm going to keep up-to-date wih this blog while I have walking, geocaching & visiting pubs to do (not necessarily in that order!) &, by the time I retire from all of that, I probably won't be doing anything worth writing about!

So, photos & brief captions.... for the time being!

A morning's geocaching in Rolleston before the rest of the crew took themselves off for 'afternoon tea' at some posh place just outside the village!

Though they weren't too posh to drop in to 'The Jinnie Inn' with me!

Named after the railway that ran through the village until 1968, it was on the old Tutbury to Burton-on-Trent line

We'd geocached on 'The Jinnie Trail', a nature-walk along the old track-bed

My 9th new pub of 2014!




Rolleston was once best known as the home of Oswald Moseley but his Rolleston Hall burned down many years ago

Lee finds a tractor to play on in a rather muddy picnic area!