Wednesday, 13 October 2010

A jaunt to Monsal Head

On what turned out to be a glorious October day, Steve & Trev ambled and rambled from Ashford in the Water to Monsal Head and back




Views from above Ashford  on our way to ...



... Monsal Head - where we savoured some excellent coffee and a wonderful home-made fruit cake; we must go back for more!


Views from the top



Our route took us down to the riverside - not the one in Durham, this one is by Nether Dale Farm



Then under the viaduct. When it was built in 1861 there was fierce local resistance. John Ruskin (of poetry and environmental fame) is quoted as saying: "The valley is gone, and now every fool in Buxton can be in Bakewell in half an hour and every fool in Bakewell in Buxton, which you may think a lucrative process of exchange, you fools everywhere!"



The River Wye


Then across the A6 to Marianne Grace Wood


and a disused water mill



Views from  Sheepwash Bridge, Ashford, where for centuries shepherds washed their sheep (by night?) by driving them across the river at Ashford. The custom still survives as an annual event for tourists. Sheep are penned in a stone enclosure built on the side of the 17th century packhorse bridge


Ain't "retirement" great!!

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