360 July Walks form Castleton

Our next walking will be on

Saturday 11th July 2015

and will be from 

Castleton

a honeypot village in the High Peak district of Derbyshire

Castleton is an outstandingly pretty village situated at the head of the lovely Vale of Hope, in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District National Park. Castleton is surrounded on 3 sides by steep hills and the mighty bulk of Mam Tor looms high, 2 miles to the north west of the village. On a hill, overlooking Castleton, is the ancient Peveril Castle.  ...........click to follow

There will be 3 walks;

• A Walk led by; Peter Hitchcock
• B Walk led by; Beverley Kelly
• C Walk led by; Doreen Lethbridge

details will be added as they become available, but by Saturday 4th July

A Walk from Castleton 2015

Walk Leader:    Peter Hitchcock
Total Distance: 11 miles
Total ascent:     2250 feet 

 

‘A’ WALK CASTLETON – JUN 2015

Like many walks before, this just under 11-mile trek offers stunning views across the Peaks, particularly from Rushup Edge, but you will be open to the elements for most of the route so please bring both wind and rain-proofs with you.  Hopefully not needed, so maybe suncream!

From the car park (with its free toilets!!) we skirt Peveril Castle to scramble up the impressive Cave Dale gorge.  Although tricky underfoot initially, we eventually break out onto nice grass pathways for much of the way.  From the top of the gorge, we route westwards on the level and on the southern side of the valley to gain a magnificent vista northwards of  Mam Tor and its ridge. We continue past the Iron Age Eldon Hill, then aim for the western tip of Rushup Edge.

The afternoon section comprises an easy climb on firm track up the Edge and along the Ridge to Mam Tor, Hollins Cross, Back Tor and, finally, Lose Hill – all easy going (ish)!  That leaves a gentle 45- min stroll back to Castleton and refreshment, passing some pretty cottage gardens on the way.

 

B Walk from Castleton 2015

Walk Leader:     Beverley Kelly
Total Distance:  7.5 miles
Total ascent:      1600 feet 

One of the joys of Fell Walking is to have a ridge with wonderful views to walk along and the 2.5 miles of the MamTor ridge is just that.

We pass lovely stone buildings and a steepish climb to catch our first glimpse of the ridge and from there it is easy walking through meadowland and farm tracks with expansive views to reach the short climb to ‘The Shivering Mountain’  We have 360º view as we stroll along the ridge with good pathways most of the way. There will be lots of interesting things to note and possible hang gliders to watch. We drop down to Hollins Cross and then up again to reach Lose Hill where we look down the Hope valley to see the limestone works and possibly Hathersage in the distance?

Our slow descent passes flowering meadows and wildlife to eventually reach the village and refreshments at the many establishments.

There were many school parties and youth groups on D of E exercises on the recce and I do expect to have large numbers of people on the ridge. This is the nature of the place, but everyone is happy and enjoying the great outdoors.

Photos taken on the recce are here: 

C Walk from Castleton 2015

Walk Leader:    Doreen Lethbridge
Total Distance: 5 miles
Total ascent:     820 feet 
Level of difficulty: Easy

Castles and Caverns

Castleton is where the limestone of the White Peak and the shales and gritstone of the Dark Peak collide.

Castleton is the last settlement before the Hope Valley narrows and squeezes into the rocky ravine of Winnats. It's a bustling tourist town with a history evident back to Norman times, and a geology that has been responsible for many of its successes and most of its failures. At Castleton the shales and gritstone of the Dark Peak and the limestone plateaux of the White Peak meet. Here countless generations of miners have dug their shafts and enlarged the natural caves which riddle the bedrock in search of ore. Here too, they built an ambitious road that eventually succumbed to the landslides of Mam Tor, 'the Shivering Mountain'.

The castle keep is perched high upon an outcrop of limestone. It's one of the earliest stone-built castles in the country, built shortly after the Norman Conquest by William Peveril, William the Conqueror's illegitimate son.

The entrance to Cavedale is narrow and dramatic. One minute you're in the village square, the next you've turned the corner and entered an awesome limestone ravine. Geologists used to think Cavedale was a collapsed cavern, but current thinking places it as a valley carved by glaciers of the last Ice Age.
 
A little limestone path takes you through the ravine, climbing past cave entrances and over the tops of a wide system of subterranean passages, including those of the nearby Peak Cavern. The valley shallows and the next stretch of the journey is over high green fields enclosed by dry-stone walls. Mam Tor, the Shivering Mountain, dominates the view ahead and soon you look down on the crumbling tarmac of the ill-fated road, and the huge shale landslides that have plagued the valley for centuries.

The first Castleton cavern of the day is the Blue John Mine, high on the side of Mam Tor. It takes its name from the purple-blue fluospar, unique to Castleton. The floodlights of the chambers show off the old river galleries with crystalline waterfalls, and a fascinating array of stalagmites and stalactites.

Beyond the Blue John Mine a narrow path rakes across the steep limestone-studded slopes past Treak Cliff Cavern to the Speedwell Cavern, at the foot of the Winnats Pass. If you like boat trips, a visit to this cavern is a must. Here, lead miners excavated a level into the hill, through which they built a subterranean canal, 547yds (500m) long. This took them eleven years, but low yields and high costs forced the early closure of the mine. The fascinating boat trip takes you down the canal to a landing stage just short of the 'Bottomless Pit', named because the spoil thrown in by miners made no impression on its depth.

The last stretch takes you across the National Trust's Longcliffe Estate. Before retreating to Castleton, take one last look back up the valley, and across the limestone that was once a coral reef in a tropical lagoon.

This is the proposed walk but has not been recced yet so is liable to be modified.

Photographs Coniston

Photographs taken on the walks at Coniston

 C Walk by Ray