Captain's Log

Storm Amy

Storm Amy dragged its feet as it crossed the north of the UK.  The weather forecast predicted sunshine for today, but strong winds up until around midday. I parked at the roadside on Sir William Hill Road and we got out of the car to get kitted up. Well, it was definitely very windy and we all put jackets on to maintain some warmth. As we stepped out onto Eyam Moor, the sunshine was somewhat lacking. Over to the east some God’s Rays illuminated Froggatt Edge. The sky looked like it might produce rain rather than sunshine. 

The Kapitan, Cabin Boy, Ted and I were on another Ethel tick tour, although there was only one summit tick today: Sir William Hill. Today’s walk was a little odd in that we were only parked about a kilometre from its summit, but we’d leave the ticking until our return and almost the very end of the walk. We'd start with a traverse of Eyam Moor. The OS map said there was a stone circle on its plateau top that I’d never visited before. The rest of the walk would explore the very pretty valley that is formed around Highlow Brook, Abney Clough and Bretton Clough. I spotted a rainbow forming over to the west. It looked like rain was approaching. 

Eyam Moor

Luckily there was a good track over Eyam Moor. The moor was covered with high heather and ferns and so it would have been hard work to forge our own way off the path. At least the high vegetation took some of the sting out of the strong wind. Over to the north I could see Over Owler Tor and Higger Tor, where we’d been Ethel ticking a couple of weeks ago (see Start Of Ethels: Ted’s Big Adventure). For some reason the obvious track we’d been following became rather vague as we approached the stone circle, until it almost disappeared altogether. The stone circle turned out to be a barrow instead. Wikipedia says there are three Bronze Age stone circles on Eyam Moor, but then shows a photo of a barrow. It seems that we missed or maybe walked through the stone circles without realising it since the heather and ferns were so high. The barrow was quite obvious though, especially since there was a sign on a post near it asking you politely not to damage it. There was a vague track on the other side which became more distinct as we walked further from the barrow. The track descended and bent around towards the country lane at Leam. As we hit tarmac, we lost the wind and even the sun came out; things were looking up. 

High Low

We followed the country lane northwards. This opened up wonderful views towards Hathersage and Stanage Edge beyond. At a bend in the road we branched away to follow the drive towards Hoghall. Just before reaching their entrance gate we diverted away into a field and descended to a footbridge over Highlow Brook. We would cross this brook a couple of more times further upstream, but for the moment, we climbed the hill on the other side of the valley until we reached the country lane beyond the farm at Broadhay.    

Our route took us westwards along the road. Three or four cars did pass us along this stretch of tarmac, but it wasn’t really busy or dangerous. There were still those great views over to the north to keep us entertained. The hill called High Low became more dominant on our left. At Highlow Hall we left the road and headed across a field towards Highlow Brook again. Highlow Hall looked quite an impressive setup and was in a perfect position to have a view westwards up the valley towards Bretton Clough and Abney Clough.   

Once we’d crossed Highlow Brook again, I suggested to the Kapitan, Cabin Boy and Ted that we investigate some ant nests along the footpath to the east. I’d walked by these nests on previous walks and they are many years old.  It would only be a 10 minute out-and-back. They were in agreement and we set off to have a look. I counted 8 nests altogether. They were next to the footpath and just looked like large piles of pine needles that somebody had swept together. It was only when we inspected closely that we could see that the surface of the pine needles was covered with ants. I saw one poor caterpillar being dragged to a nightmarish fate. My shins started to itch and I suggested we move on. 

Abney Clough

We retraced our steps to the footbridge over Highlow Brook and then continued westwards. The woodland disappeared to our south which enabled us to see up to the top of Eyam Moor where we’d been walking earlier this morning. The footpath dropped back down into woodland again and we used a footbridge to cross Highlow Brook yet again. Our route now took us along Abney Clough. A female jogger had passed us as we crossed Highlow Brook and I now spotted her squatting down in the vegetation further up the track. ‘Whoops!’ I thought ‘she’s having a pee.’ I decided to give her a minute or two’s grace, before continuing along the path. I was therefore surprised when she stood up with some large mushrooms in her hand and then continued her jog. It seems she was on a foraging run. 

It was a lovely woodland walk along Abney Clough. When we escaped the woods, the sky looked greyer and rain looked as though it was threatening again. The track eventually led up to the road that passed through the small village of Abney. I’d not been to this village before and found it quite pretty. I was impressed by the ‘Curlew’ weather-vane on top of the village hall. At the end of the village, we found a footpath heading down into the clough again. There was a small bench, just as we started down the footpath, and we decided to have our lunch there. It was a cosy fit on the bench for the four of us, but we were rewarded by a good view southwards as we ate our lunch.

Bretton Clough

After lunch, we crossed the clough and then field-hopped past Cockey Farm before descending steeply to Bretton Brook. We would now follow this brook downstream. Our footpath was higher up the hillside on the brook's south side and we were able to get a good view of Abney Low hill to the north and also down the valley towards Highlow Brook. On this section of the walk, we were effectively completing a circuit of Abney Low. It was a lovely picturesque walk along Bretton Clough. Two women had preceded us by about 2 or 300 metres. When the track and valley turned northwards, we found them retreating down the steep hillside on our right. They had either gone wrong, or they'd bee trying to take a shortcut to the track above and then decided to give it up as a bad idea. We also wanted to get up to that track, but it was far easier to continue following Bretton Brook down the valley and then double back on to the track. It was longer, but far easier than doing a shortcut. We did exactly that and when Bretton Brook met Highlow Brook, we headed off up the hillside on a good path towards Eyam Moor. 

Sir William Hill

It was an excellent route up to Eyam Moor. The track skirted the top of some crags and there was a superb view over Abney Low and along Bretton Clough. As we got higher, we started to be buffeted by the strong winds again. This morning’s walk through the woodland and along the cloughs had protected us from the worst of the weather. There was no protection now as we made our way up to the exposed plateau of Eyam Moor. There were also occasional spots of rain amongst the blasts of wind. We were on the wrong side of the stone wall that led us up on to Eyam Moor and so it didn’t offer us any protection. At the old quarry site at Rock Basin we followed a track up to some massive rocks that I was surprised to find were unnamed on the OS map. The track took us southwards along a low ridge to Sir William Hill’s trig which was now clearly visible. It looked like there had been quite a few, small quarries along this particular track. The wind was so strong at the trig that it was difficult to stand upright and to keep a steady hand for the photos. Ted didn’t even want to come out of the Cabin Boy’s rucksack for the summit photos, but we eventually managed to coax him out. It was a relief to drop down from the trig and reach the stone track that forms Sir William Hill Road. It was still windy along the road, but not gale force like it had been on the tops. It was only a short hike along the stone track back to the car. 

Despite the gale force winds, I really enjoyed today. The walk had an interesting variety of open moor walking and woodland trails. The valleys and cloughs were very picturesque. I’ll probably have nightmares about those ant nests though.