Captain's Log

Hayfield

It was misty as we drove westwards over the Woodhead Pass. The weather forecasters had predicted wall-to-wall sunshine for today. Naturally, the clag felt a little disappointing. Not only that, but the roads were wet. It looked like there had been a heavy downpour overnight and so the route today might be a bit muddy. 

We were on a two Ethel tick tour today for the Kapitan, Cabin Boy and Ted. Cown Edge and Lantern Pike were in our sights.  I’d ticked these just over 3 years ago on my Ethel Venture.  On that occasion I’d set off from the pretty village of Rowarth situated between the two hills (see Lantern Pike Like). In order to try something different, I decided that we’d tackle the hills from Hayfield instead. We’d head north on paths running parallel to the Glossop road before climbing up to Cown Edge and ticking its summit. I’d seen the mysteriously named ‘Robin Hood’s Picking Rods’ labelled on the OS map, to the south of Cown Edge, and I intended to investigate the location as we headed southwards. After paying homage to Robin Hood, we’d briefly enter Rowarth, before making our way to the top of Lantern Pike, our second and last Ethel of the day. Our descent would take us down to the River Sett and we would follow this back to the carpark at Hayfield using the Pennine Bridleway. There seemed to be a lot of field-hopping involved looking at the map, but from my past visit I remembered it to be a very pretty area with some great views eastwards to Kinder Scout. 

Mist

Only the bases of the hills were on display this morning. The tops were covered in mist. Initially our route took us into the centre of Hayfield, but we soon made our way out again and started heading northwards. At Little Hayfield we came across a large, old mill that had been converted into apartments. A road sign asked people to drive with care between dawn and dusk to avoid the toads. Presumably, they were 'Vampire Toads.' Thankfully, the time was well past dawn. We didn’t see any as we climbed up the hillside beyond the mill. In a field near Brookhouses we found a lone black sheep in a field that had fearsome four horns. It looked like the devil himself. Some more field hopping took us up to Matley Moor and an area of Open Access land. After the walk, I realised we could have bagged Matley Moor (Knarrs) as an Explorer hill. That tick will have to wait for another walk. We reached a country lane just beyond Knarrs Nook and then turned westwards onto a track that would take us up on to the ridge that forms Cown Edge. 

Cown Edge

It was an easy climb up to the top of the ridge. Mist had been drifting in and out as we’d approached and it did the same once we started walking north eastwards along the edge. Occasionally the mist would clear and we’d get a great view southwards towards Lantern Pike. There were a few horses mooching about. The Cabin Boy panicked since she first thought they were cows. There were plenty of sheep about and plenty of their droppings too. It wasn’t a place to sit down to have a break. Further northwards we came across a couple of disused quarries. The extracted stone was probably used for roofs. Later research revealed there to be some stone carvings in the quarries and so I wish I’d spent a bit of time to wander around them and investigate. There’s even supposed to be a ‘naked lady.’ That is, a carving, rather than a real person. Anyway, we missed all that and plodded on to the summit of Cown Edge. There was nothing to indicate the summit and it all looked pretty flat up there, so we had to located the official spot it by grid reference (SK 02147 92030). The mist cleared a little and we had a bird’s eye view over to Glossop and Hadfield. At least it provided a backdrop to the summit photos. It had been an out-and-back stretch of the walk to reach the summit and so we started retracing our steps southwards. 

Robin Hood's Picking Rods

The mist finally cleared for good as we retraced our steps to the point where we’d climbed up to the ridge of Cown Edge. From here, we headed westwards on a footpath that was fenced off from the fields. This was a relief to the Cabin Boy since there were horses and cattle in the fields. Our luck ran out near the farm at Far Slack when the path delivered us into an open field where there were a dozen or so cows and their calves too. I heard the Cabin Boy mutter some profanities. As we followed the path along the edge of the field, one of the cows moved on to the path with her calf. They both stood facing us and glaring as we approached. ‘Shoo, shoo’ I said, when I was about 20 yards away. They didn’t shoo and looked like they’d not intention of shooing. By this time, the Cabin Boy was making noises like a Curlew kicking off. The cow and calf were about as immobile as those at Ilkley and so I diverted further into the field around them. This meant we had to get closer to the other cattle in the field and limited even further our escape routes if any of the bovines took umbrage with us. In the end, nothing happened. The cow and calf remained in their positions on the footpath, still facing the same way, and the other cattle didn’t give us a second look. By the time we reached the end of the field the Cabin Boy was getting some colour back into her cheeks and had stopped frothing at her mouth.  

Robin Hood’s Picking Rods were at the end of the field. These were two columns of stone embedded into a stone base. It is thought that the stones were once part of a Mercian cross. According to legend, Robin Hood used the column to bend his bow. They reminded me of The Bowstones, near Lyme Hall (which isn't that far away). The Bowstones were also the remains of a stone cross. The legend there was that Robin Hood used them to string his bows. You have to admire Robin Hood, he seemed to get everywhere in the country. 

Rowarth

Yet more field hopping brought us closer to Rowarth. The sun was out now and it had turned into a glorious day. There were fine views of the hills to the south. As we dropped down into Rowarth we could see our next hill Lantern Pike, on the other side. As soon as we reached the small collection of houses at Rowarth, we walked out the other side and followed a farm track eastwards. At Lower Hartihill Farm we admired a wonderful weather vane that featured a black cat chasing some mice. There were some wonderful views eastwards to the western edge of Kinder and also to The Knott and Burnt Hill. We took the opportunity of the sunshine and great views to sit down and have our lunch. 

Lantern Pike

To be honest Cown Edge didn’t feel much of a climb. Lantern Pike on the other hand, did require a bit of effort to make the ascent. Halfway up, we had to make way for the members of a rambling club that were making their way down. I reckon there must have been 30 of them altogether. I double checked with the last couple that we could see that they were indeed the last ones of their group. They confirmed that they were, and so we set off upwards again.     

There was a small stone pillar at the summit with a toposcope on top. The views down into the valley towards Hayfield were superb. We took photos for the Ethel album and Ted took the opportunity to photobomb one of my photos. <sigh> I wish he would act like a grown up. A couple of mountain bikers reached the top and we chatted for a while. One of them said that he had been at a restaurant until midnight last night and that the rain had come down like it was a monsoon. I told him that I’d been in bed by 20:00 and slept through it all. Fortunately, the paths so far hadn’t been that wet. We left both of them at the summit to wait for somebody else in their group and we started to make our descent. 

Return

There were great views as we descended into the valley and we joined the Pennine Bridleway to take us down to the River Sett. There were plenty of people sitting outside the Sett Valley Cafe; it looked like a popular stop for walkers and bikers. In fact, we could see the bikes of the Mountain Bikers we’d met at the summit of Lantern Pike, propped up outside. It looked like a little grotto with all the coloured lights strung up outside. We’d seen rain clouds approaching from Manchester when we were on the top of Lantern Pike and they reached us just as we were passing the café. If there had been any tables available I might have suggested paying a visit in order to wait out the rain, but all the tables looked occupied. It was only a light rain though and we were partially protected by branches from trees that overhung the Pennine Bridleway. It had stopped altogether by the time that we reached the carpark. 

Well, that’s another two Ethels ticked. The Kapitan and Cabin are now on 53 and Ted is on 4. It was a shame we had a misty start to the day, but it was wonderful once the sun came out. I’m a bit annoyed that I missed the opportunity to bag Matley Moor and see the naked lady at Cown Edge quarry, but it does give me a good excuse to return to the area someday. It was interesting to see yet another ancient monument dedicated to Robin Hood. After Cattlegate (or maybe it should be the lack-of-a-cattle-gate) the Cabin Boy was suffering post traumatic stress disorder. Well, at least she has another week to recover before the next walk.