Longshaw Estate & White Edge Moor

Well, not having been out and about on our usual Sunday morning walk for a few weeks, we tried our best to have a lie in but it looked like such a lovely day out there that it would be positively criminal not to make the most of it.

We decided just to make it a short walk this morning, so opted to drive to the Longshaw Estate, just up the hill from Grindleford - a route that should have fairly good paths and would hopefully not be too muddy after the rainfall yesterday.

Despite being a little later than usual there were plenty of spaces in the car park.  We wandered off around the route - firstly past the coffee shop and Longshaw Lodge and then off through the trees and down towards the Grouse Inn - a pub we used to frequent many, many years ago. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning - although a bit nippy out of the sun and a bit breezy - definitely time for me to invest in a hat.

We saw a sign post to 'Wooden Pole' which was quite intriguing - I thought it might be some sort of totem that a forest sculptor had made - and hoped our route took us past it later in the walk.

Looking back there were stunning views over to Mam Tor and Kinder Scout.  The great thing about living so close to the Peak District is the variety of walks we can do and getting to see places like Kinder Scout from different angles depending on where we are walking.

We finally made it to the Wooden Pole and what a disappointment.  It is literally a bit of wood sticking up out of the ground, well more of a very long stick really!  Maybe it was once a tree that had all of its branches stripped and removed, or maybe it was used as a marker for something.  I dunno, I'm just gonna have to make something up to make it a bit more interesting that it actually was!

  And there it is - the pathetic looking wooden pole.  Not the nice twisted tree in the foreground, but that excuse of an attraction to the left there. And to think it has it's own car park!!