Fox House Round Walk via Hathersage and Grindleford

At the beginning of my break from work, I bumped into my friend Kathryn at the hairdressers.  Nothing unusual about that, except I'd changed from my normal hairdresser, and Kathryn just doesn't 'do' hairdressers, so neither of us would normally have beent here except she had won a cut and express manicure in a charity auction.  She said she'd been hoping to bump into 'someone to chat to' that day and lo and behold, it turned out to be me.  We decided to go for a coffee there and then, and after chatting, made a loose arrangement to meet up every other Tuesday on her day off.

Instead of going out for lunch yesterday, I suggested we go for a walk and take a packed lunch. That way I could stick to my diet and get some exercise. 

We had a great day for walking the sun was blazing but there was a slight breeze as we set off from Dronfield about 11.00 am and headed out to Fox House where we parked the car.  We headed off through the car park and out over the moors in the general direction of Hathersage, making it up as we went along really!  The first incline took me by surprise - I found it really hard going and couldn't get my breathing under control.  A few deep breaths and not talking for a little while sorted me out and I was ok for the rest of the walk. Sometimes it takes a little while to get into your stride.

We headed off over the little stone bridge over the stream and skirted an escarpment for a little while before finding the steps that took us over the top.  We walked past Scraper Low Hall Farm, which used to be owned by a colleague of mine when I worked in housing.  It's a fantastic building with castle turrets at the centre, and according to Pauline who I worked with, is haunted.  We meandered through the woods near the farm where we stopped to eat lunch.

Scraper Low Hall Farm

Lunch break view

 
We then headed down into Hathersage, which is a fabulous village. The church graveyard houses the remains of Little John from Robin Hood fame. Hathersage is also the place Simon and I spent out first night as husband and wife at the George Hotel.  It was lovely back in 1985 for our first visit, but was in serious need of a refurb some years later when we went back for a second visit.  The building itself is rather lovely though, like a one-storie mini castle and very quaint.



Once in Hathersage we headed along the river over to Grindleford and on past Padley Chapel and up to the Grindleford Cafe. It's not the best kept cafe in the world but is a famous stop off for walkers and I allowed myself a can of coke as much to cool down as to give me a short burst of energy for the climb up to Padley Gorge.

Padley Chapel

Padley Gorge is very much my favourite place in Derbyshire.  There is a magical feel to the place, and if fairies and goblins existed, they would live here.  We found a fabulous new bridge which has been installed over the river and I loved the wood used and the fact that the designer had gone for a natural shape rather than plane the wood down into straight strips. 

Padley Gorge Wiggley Bridge

We crossed the road over into the Longshaw Estate, a National Trust site and walked on up to the main road and back to Fox House to pick up the car again.
 

Wooden Ant at Longshaw Estate

 The whole trip took about 4 hours and we covered between 6 and 8 miles.