Pennine Bridleway

Blackwell → Birch Vale

Distance: 19.20 miles
Ascent: 683 metres
Duration: 6 hours 41 minutes

Water
« Not walked | Not walked »

Since the theme of yesterday's walk was earth, today's had to be water. It was set before I'd even taken the bus back out to Blackwell. Staying in Buxton overnight there was only one way I could've filled up my water carrier: direct from the source at St Anne's Well. Like all other wells in the town, it had been dressed for the local festival, a practice I'd not come across before. Apparently a Derbyshire tradition, great frames of wet clay are affixed to the well heads, into which petals, leaves, feathers and all manner of other materials are pressed to create a scene. Had I known more, I would have sought out these wells over the past two walks.

As for today's walk, after a charming start deep in Chee Dale beside the River Wye, most of the first half was a little tedious, plodding along quiet tarmac lanes. On reaching the High Peak though, the trail transformed and became an absolute joy. Ahead I could see Kinder Low, evoking memories of the climb out of Edale last year on our first day walking the Pennine Way. The number of cyclists on the path picked up; some whizzed by, while others stopped suddenly to see what I was photographing (and then seemed surprised to realise that the views were stunning).

I was hoping to see a monument in Hayfield commemorating the mass trespass of 1932, considered by many to be the start of the movement to secure public access to our country's land, but if there was one I couldn't find it.

The final stretch of the day from Hayfield to Birch Vale was a little less inspiring, along the line of another disused railway, but was at least very easy walking.