Chee and Wye Dale, Peak District

What a cold winter we’ve been having and this weekend was no different. With a couple of inches falling in and around Macclesfield the originally planned walk to Dane Valley was a no go and it prevented a few of the walkers coming along too. Coming over the hills from Leek to Buxton, the weather looked quite interesting.. Very windy, whiteout, skiddy roads etc. Then if by magic as we dropped down into Buxton, the weather was actually better (not hard comparing to what we just drove through!).

Managing to contact everyone else who was coming we managed to meet up in the Pavilion Gardens car park we decided to drive out eastward away from the scary clouds and stay relatively low off the higher hills. We drove down the A6, down towards Wye Dale and pulled up at the car park at SK10388 72519.

So on went the boots, and the group (who today where Helen P, Helen E, Paul, Jon, Marta and Edd) began walking by the River Wye on a gravel track.  The track was criss-crossed by the old railway viaducts above, where some scarily long icicles were hanging. Did stand under there for too long!! We turned off the track just before the weir, by which the path took us up onto the Monsal Trail.

We walked along the old railway line for a couple of miles, joking about with the icicles. Myself doing a quality impression of a walrus!! The weather was improving now, even the sun was out!! We entered one of the long tunnels. We lost both Helens at one end, they were to busy taking photos. At the other end of the tunnel, we came out into the valley and straight onto another bridge, where the railway went off behind closed doors. I’m reliably informed that the rest of the tunnels are eventually going to be made safe so that people can walk through them! But then they would miss the next bit!!

After the bridge at SK12545 73109, we turned right and then walked  back under the railway bridge and then over a wooden foot bridge a yards further on. The path then gave way to a series of stepping stones which were great fun, as we turned the corner, with Chee Tor to the right, there were huge sets of icicles on the craggy rock up above. Some even started to creek and fall. Eek watch out! Of the fallen ice some had refrozen around the trees and plants closer to the ground. Which were very pretty. After a while and a few more crashes of ice we moved on quickly :) The trail then follows the meander in the river, we climbed up a little slope and had some lunch at the top to take in a good view of the gorge.

With Daisy and a few of the walkers getting restless we  carried on the path. It swung eastwards, and opened up into a grassy field, where a couple of weirs were placed across the river. We crossed over the bridge at SK12783 73472. Edd walked off ahead guided by his new OS Maps for IPhone app which seemed to be quite good tool! Although we did make a bit of a meal of the path going up the hill to an old abandoned settlement at the top. Crossing few a couple of fields we reached Blackmore Hall, where we went wrong with the path again, definitely my fault this time! All ended up okay as we ended  up on a minor road through the little hamlet of Blackwell.

As it definitely winter! the shadows were starting to draw, so we began walking back towards where we parked the cars. A footpath took us in a north westward direction across a few fields, where we picked up a track which went the wrong way! oops but sometimes the wrong way brings up surprises. After lobbing a few rocks into the ice. One of the group noticed all these frozen frogs in a neaerby water trough. Grim stuff really, although I guess some at the bottom could be hibernating.

We made our way back down the steep sided offshoot valley towards the River Wye, with a quite ghastly looking quarry in the distance. We got back down onto the Monsal trail and retraced our roots back a mile to the car.

Details

Start and End Point: SK10388 72519
Total Distance: 8 km
Total Altitude Gain: 120m
Total Time: 4 hours