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| The trig point on Gun Hill with The Roaches behind |
Meeting up at 9am at the now infamous Knot Inn in Rushton Spencer, Mark, Lee and Martin set off into the unknown as none of us had ever taken this route before. Despite the apparent good weather for a change, it rapidly became clear that the Peak District had received more than its fair share of the recent heavy rainfall, fields had become boggy and thoughts turned to whether or not we should have donned boots instead of trail shoes but we persevered on the steady climb to the top of Gun Hill which seemed to pass very quickly.
To add to the boggy fields problem, we seemed to come across more and more electric cattle fences blocking our path with no convenient means of unhooking. We have developed a knack for dealing with these using our walking poles. While the shafts are aluminium the rubber handles keep us insulated allowing the wire to be lifted or pressed down allowing teammates to pass. Martin always seems all to willing to test this out and sacrifice himself for his teammates in this respect.
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| Hen Cloud getting closer |
From the top of Gun Hill we descended to
Tittesworth Reservoir, a place where Mark has brought his kids to feed the ducks on previous occasions but as this marked the low point and Hen Cloud was becoming ever more present we started our upward path. The plan was to go around the base of
Hen Cloud and ascend from the far side, coming over the top and down towards
The Roaches. As we crossed the ford near Upper Hulme, we lost all sign of the footpath we needed to take, no signs, no desire lines, no stiles and no gates. We retraced our steps and still nothing, so a quick examination of the map and we changed the plan to approach Hen Cloud from the front and walk round the base of the hill itself which meant walking back the way we had come.
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| The cliffs on Hen Cloud |
Noting signs warning us that some paths were closed due to nesting Peregrine Falcons we wondered whether this would affect our plan but it didn't and they remained safely undisturbed in their nests. This route took us past Roaches Hall which looked a nice little place and we soon started our ascent to the top. Arriving at the top, we took in the view and the rugged beauty of this place and after 3hours of walking decided this would be a good spot for a a bite to eat so setting aside 10 minutes we tucked into sandwiches, Lucozade, peanuts and Polly's 'energy cake' which she had dispatched Lee with. After throwing in the now customary foot check for Mark, we were soon descending Hen Cloud and heading up The Roaches.
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| Climbers on The Roaches |
The Roaches is a very popular with walkers and climbers alike and today was no exception as the trails and cliff faces were teeming with people. At one point we could see Lee eyeing up the climbers taking the 'vertical' route and pondering but we managed to drag him away before he could come up with another sadistic test for us.
We passed
Doxey's Pool where legend has it a mermaid lives and entices victims into the depths of this 'bottomless' pool. Though no evidence existed today, we didn't linger too long and carried on to the trig point passing some interesting windswept and eroded rocks on the way.
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| No mermaid at Doxey's Pool today |
Once passed the trig point we were again coming down and the route had been planned to take us through
Lud's Church somewhere Martin and Lee had never been before and a place steeped in legend. The route was fairly arduous as the trail was boggy, fast flowing rainwater had eroded the peat to expose tree roots and high winds had brought trees down across the path making it heavy going. Dropping carefully into the chasm in the rock, we worked our way along the bottom, stopping to check on the
geocache hidden there (a hobby of Mark's) and sign the logbook before working our way to the very muddy exit.
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| The Lud's Church chasm |
Back on the trail which was in much better condition we worked our way back towards the end of The Roaches and along the boundary of
Swythamley Hall and noted a number of large felled trees and wondered whether the recent Oxfordshire tornado had detoured this way. In the valley below we noted a building and reading the letters on the side identified th as the
'Wincle Brewery'. A detour was debated to the brewery but then we felt better of it as we we had pie and chips awaiting in the Knot Inn. It was at this 22km point Mark suddenly got an inconvenient twinge in his right calf but he managed to stretch it out.
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