A week in The Peaks

And so a week in The Peaks. After spending time with Martin’s uncle and aunt on Sunday Graham kindly drove us up the Snake Pass and dropped us at the top so that we could have a walk down to Old Glossop. It was a beautiful day, clear and dry, and the views were quite breathtaking. Ten minutes with our feet in the stream at Mossy Lea readied us for a tour of Howard’s Town micro brewery. Tuesday again dawned well, not as forecast, and Viv and Graham joined us for the ongoing journey. We stopped for lunch with their daughter and grandchild at New Mills and then on to Bugsworth Basin – a large and nicely restored transhipment basin for lime and stone from the hills. Saying that does not do justice to the massive amount of work that has been done to reclaim the canal and environs and make it a lovely mooring place. We were so lucky with the weather as the front that was hitting further south just about missed us so we had a few good days. Martin did a bit more walking and found the most wonderfully located cricket pitch, with hills all around. Before heading back down ‘The Macc’ we visited Whaley Bridge,  and had an overnight stop at New Mills where we found the Millennium Walkway, an amazing piece of engineering carrying a walk around a gorge, high above the river and leading to the Goyt Way taking in the mill history of the area. Goyt Mill at Marple still stands intact and massive and is where Martin’s great aunt worked for all her life. These huge edifices, where they have not been demolished, now stand as reminders of the important industrial past of the area and it is good to see where they have either been reopened as work units or flats, some never actually went out of use as for many the mill itself only used the top floor and the lower floors were always let out as individual businesses.

The weather finally hit on Friday and we travelled onward in heavy rain arriving wet and cold (we are at 518 feet above sea level here) so we lit our little stove to dry out – very effective.  Now we have stopped again at Higher Poynton and despite travelling in rain the day improved and we walked again up towards Lyme Park, remembering to take the binoculars this time!