Topley Pike

Topley Pike

26 August 2017

TOPLEY PIKE, MONSAL TRAIL, WYE VALLEY, CHEE DALE, MILLER’S DALE, HIGHCLIFFE FARM, CHURCH INN AT CHELMORTON, TOPLEY PIKE QUARRY, WETHERSPOONS (WYE BRIDGE HOTEL) AT BUXTON

Distance: Ten miles.

Difficulty: Moderate apart from the arduous going.

Weather: Bright spells and rain

Walkers: Colin Davison, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney and Tip.

Apologies: Peter Beal (narrow-boating), Alastair Cairns (altered diary commitments), Tom Cunliffe (wimped out), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Gibby (wimped out), Alan Hart (wimped out), Steve Kemp (whimped out), George Whaites (hip hop).

Leader: Rooney. Diarist: Davison.

Starting point: Unofficial lay-by on A6 next to entrance to Topley Pike Quarry.

Starting time: 09.47am. Finishing time: 2.25pm.

Woe, woe and thrice woe, this onerous task has fallen to our least able once again (and for the third time this year – you see what your diarist did there?).

However, it occurs to your diarist that he is not constrained by the search for verisimilitude in the way of professional scribes and academics. Rather, he will attempt to give the reader a flavour of the sojourn. If you can forgive the experts their inaccuracies due to incompetence, perhaps you can forgive the following for exuberance.

Not for the first time this year, our numbers were depleted by the faint hearted preferring domestic chores to fun with chums because the Met Office predicted above average precipitation.

Despite the dismal weather forecast, we were treated to a beautiful July day with only a little of the predicted rain and the sun shining from time to time on the impressive scenery around the Wye Valley and the hills overlooking. 

We called at one of our favourite traditional village pubs before ending the day in one of Britain’s cheapest hostelries.

On the nature front, we saw a water vole, a heron, a wagtail, a buzzard and a  dipper on a rock in the middle of the river. Glimpsed, but not verified, we may have spotted a brown bear and her cub padding through the undergrowth, no doubt attracted by the huge quantities of trout reputed in the river.

From our lay-by we crossed the A6 and turned right along the Monsal Trail. We climbed the steps to the disused railway line which we walked along passing through 3 tunnels until we reached the 4^th where we descended steps to a bridge over the river.

Crossing the river we turned right along the bank to stepping stones beneath high cliffs.

Safely over, we reached a broad bank where climbers were enjoying the challenge of the overhanging face

Distracted briefly by their skill and poise we continued up a steep climb over limestone rock made slick by the earlier rain.

Chris was fascinated by the water rising at Wormhill Spring and Jock explained that this was some of the finest and most expensive angling water in the country.

Shortly after, we were treated to a display of fly fishing by a local afficianado.

Jock decided that our normal route was too short and marched us on to Miller’s Dale. Emerging on the road, we turned right and braved speeding traffic for ½ mile to Long Lane on our left. We paused for pietime.

A long steep climb brought us to Highcliffe farm at the end of the track where we carried straight along the road to a crossroads and turned right following a sign for the Limestone way.

On the road we found that the fine weather had brought out more nature enthusiasts.

Crossing the A6 we followed a track beside the Waterloo Inn. This brought us to a gate where we rejoined our normal route. Following the track round a curve we crossed a step stile over the wall on our right. Diagonally across the field we reached a gate through which we joined another muddy track.

This took us through a farmyard and we went straight on at a gravel track. The track dog-legged straight on at a wooden public footpath sign marked Chelmorton alongside an abandoned rake. Through a stile we headed past a well where the path swung left into the village. The Church Inn was on our right.

Although rain had threatened moments before, the sky cleared and we were bathed in sunshine. However, we opted to sit inside drinking a variety of excellent cask bitters at £3-40 per pint

At this point your diarist discovered, on examination, that his clothing was inexplicably wet right down to his boxer shorts. The only exception were his feet in his newly acquired and very expensive Altberg boots and a small portion of his right sleeve close to the shoulder. Could this be attributed to the horizontal nature of the aqueous portion of the atmosphere encountered on the higher ground we had just crossed?

Continuing our walk we turned right downhill from the pub and right again at a wooden public footpaths sign. From here our path back was straight along a series of paths through fields which we entered and exited by a series of stiles and crossing a lane along the way.

Beyond a wooden stile there was a slippery descent of the steeper part of a periglacial valley before we levelled out and reached the right side of the quarry at Topley Pike. Here we saw some graphic illustrations to warn of the dangers of Quicksand and Electrocution before returning to our cars to de-boot.

We drove to the Wetherspoons (Wye Bridge House) in Buxton where we were joined by Jock’s son Sean and enjoyed Ruddles bitter at £1.99 per pint.

Next week’s walk, lead by Chris Owen, will start from The Robin Hood Buxton Rd, Congleton CW12 3PE (departure time 9.40am).  https://www.robinhoodcongleton.co.uk/ (The landlord, Carl, is happy for us to park in the carpark). A lunchtime libation will be taken at Wetherspoons  18 Swan Bank Congleton Cheshire CW12 1AH https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/cheshire/the-counting-house-congleton  around 12.20pm. We hope to return to the Robin Hood Inn by 2.30pm, where we are expected, for further refreshment.

Happy wandering.