Captain's Log

Monsal Head

A hot-air balloon hung in the air to the south as I approached Monsal Head. By the time I’d got out of the car it had disappeared below the horizon. If it was a good day for hot-air ballooning, then I figured it would be a good day for walking too. I’d parked at the small layby on the B6465, just north of Monsal Head. It is a good place to park since there is a track that runs on the other side of the stone wall that takes you to Monsal Head in less than 5 minutes and you escape the carpark charges there. The other free parking alternative is roadside parking on the road to Little Longstone from Monsal Head. 

Today’s walk would take me along the dramatic Monsal Trail, the route of a disused railway between Bakewell and Blackwell Mill.  After about 3 miles I intended to come off the Monsal Trail and follow the Chee Dale path instead. This follows the same general direction as the Monsal Trail, but at a lower level alongside the river. I intended following this trail until the Chee Dale became the Wye Dale. My plans were scuppered about halfway along the Chee Dale (I’ll document the reasons for this later on) and I ended up heading south from Chee Dale to the village of Blackwell. From there I’d follow country lanes to the pretty village of Priestcliffe, before passing through yet another dale, High Dale. I’d then follow a route along the top of Taddinton Dale and Monsal Dale before returning to Monsal Head. I’d be visiting more dales today today than you could shake a stick at.   

I went through the gate in the stone wall at the layby and looked down at the amazing scenery below Monsal Head. I had a bird's eye view of where the Monsal Dale bent around into Upperdale. Today had got off to a good start. 

Monsal Trail

It didn’t take me long to get down to the Monsal Trail and I started the easy walk along the disused railway track. Almost immediately I was crossing the viaduct with its lofty views of Monsal Dale and Upperdale. The sun was still low and wasn’t high enough to warm the bottom of the dale and so  I wore my fleece hat and gloves. It was still early, but I did cross paths with a few cyclists and runners. Often, disused railway routes can be tedious to walk along due to vegetation blocking the views on either side. The Monsal Trail is an exception in that it runs halfway up a steep sided dale and offers dramatic views down into the dale. Not only that, but there are long tunnels that one has to burrow through. The first one I came to was Cressbrook Tunnel. There was a strong headwind as I walked through the tunnel. There must have been quite an air pressure difference between the two ends of the tunnel. I exited the tunnel to be met by a spectacular view into bend in a gorge. Almost immediately I was back in the darkness of the Litton Tunnel and this deposited me in Miller’s Dale. It was easy walking along the trail and I made quick progress. Before I knew it, I’d walked the 3 miles from Monsal Head and dropped off the Monsal Trail on to the Chee Dale path. 

Chee Dale

The Monsal Trail was flat and fairly straight. In comparison the Chee Dale path was rougher and followed the meanderings of the River Wye. The riverside Rhubarb was doing very well this year. There were lots of trees and vegetation too and so the sun wasn’t able to penetrate the leaves. The river path went under a high viaduct that carried the Monsal Trail. Just as I was starting to really enjoy the trail I reached a sign at Weirs Ford. It warned that the path further upstream was rough and shouldn’t be attempted after wet weather. I now recalled that I’d read somewhere that were some stepping stones on the route that became submerged after a lot of rain. Given that we’d recently had monsoon type weather, I figured that the path further up would probably be impassable. Damn. The sign gave two alternative routes: one via Wormhill to the north and the other via Blackwell to the south. I decided to try the Wormhill route, but then found that the gate allowing access to the public footpath was padlocked shut. There were no signs indicating why it had been closed off.  Fortunately the gate to Blackwell wasn’t locked shut. It looked like my route decision had been made for me; I was heading to Blackwell, like it or not.

Blackwell, Priestcliffe And Brushfield

In fact I liked the decision a lot. I climbed up the side of the dale and it was great to at last get out into the sun. Once I reached the top I was rewarded with a spectacular view westwards along Chee Dale. Some field hopping got me to the farm at Blackwell Hall and then on to tarmac. It was all road walking from Blackwell to Priestcliffe, but there was hardly any traffic and the surrounding rolling hillside was pretty enough. It only took me 20 minutes or so to reach the pretty village of Priestcliffe. Somebody had had the great idea to dump a bench at the end of the road and I took the opportunity to sit down for a break. Although the morning had brought dramatic views along the dales, it was great now to have the contrast of open, rolling countryside. I field hopped again to the start of High Dale. This was a dry dale and an oddity in that it was ruler straight with a gradual descent. It didn’t seem very long either and I soon reached a single track road at its southern end. I followed this to yet another small and pretty collection of houses at Brushfield. The tarmac road ran out, but the route continued along a farm track. 

Return

Rather mysteriously, I was still on high ground and I started to get magnificent views down into Taddington Dale and then into Monsal Dale. Across Monsal Dale I could see Fin Cop, one of the more difficult Ethels to summit (see Fighting To Fin Cop). So far on the walk I’d managed to avoid cattle, but the last stretch along the top of Monsal Dale more than made up for this. I went through field after field of them. Fortunately, they weren’t of the nervous or curious variety and let me pass through without any trouble. The track started to drop down to intersect the Monsal Trail. Just before the gate that gave access to the trail, a man held up a hand for me to wait. There was the sound of a whirr of a saw and then a small tree tumbled down next to the gate. I waited while the tree was cut into pieces so it could be removed. I crossed the viaduct. The sun was illuminating the bottoms of the dales now; how different from the coolness of this morning. The sting in the tail for this walk was having to climb back up the hillside to Monsal Dale. A small amount of effort though  for such a great walk.  

Although I’d not completed my intended walk along the whole of Chee Dale, I was quite happy to leave that particular route for a drier day. My forced alternative route turned out to be far better than expected. I loved the contrast on this walk of the deep dale walking and then the high level route with the views down into the dales.