Yesterday we ascended Kinder Scout from it’s North East side and the vegetation was covered with dozens of Fox Moth caterpillars. We had to be careful to avoid treading on them. These caterpillars enjoy sunbathing and I think yesterday they were making the most of the autumn sunshine. The Fox Moth lives on moorland and grassland, and the moth is a buff brown colour with two pale wavy stripes on each wing. Continue reading Fox Moth Caterpillars
This wonderful photograph was taken by one of our customers on our walk on Kinder Scout last Sunday. Kinder Downfall is the tallest waterfall in the Peak District, with a 30-metre fall. It lies on the River Kinder, where it flows over the edge of Kinder Scout. Although usually little more than a trickle in summer, after heavy rain it is quite impressive. Last Sunday there was a strong wind which funnelled up the clough and the water was blown back up as it started to descend. We could feel the resulting cloud of spray from a long way back … Continue reading Kinder Downfall – Going Up!
Yesterday we enjoyed a short walk onto Stanton Moor from the village of Birchover. As well as being carpeted in beautiful purple ling heather, there are also a wealth of interesting features on the moor to marvel over. Stanton Moor is believed to have once been a very special place to our ancestors. In Bronze age times the landscape would have been very different with fertile farmland, and timber roundhouses scattered over the area. Evidence has been found all over the moor of field boundaries, burial mounds, and stone circles. The best known stone circle is the Nine Ladies. Local legend … Continue reading The wonders of Stanton Moor
This morning our ‘Nature Walk’ took us onto the Peak District moorland along Burbage Edge and across the beautiful Burbage Basin. It is a wonderful time to be walking on the moors as the heather is just beginning to come into flower. It will be a few weeks yet however before it is at its best. There are three types of heather in the Peak District. Ling Heather is by far the most common and it is the Ling Heather that gives the impression of our hills and moorlands being carpeted in purple. Less common is the Bell Heather which has … Continue reading Three types of heather on the moors
As you can see, we had a bit of fun recently on one of our group guided walks! The village of Litton is one of several in the Peak District that has retained its village stocks. Whilst there was great hilarity over our antics on the recent walk, in years gone by the stocks were a serious form of punishment. The types of crime that might result in a day or two in the stocks included: swearing; drinking in the pub during the hours of a church service; gambling on a Sunday; or even refusing to help out with the harvest. … Continue reading The village stocks
Yesterday was our first ‘Spring Flowers’ walk of the year and what a treat we had in Deepdale and Great Shacklow Wood! Deepdale is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the rich variety of flora that thrive in its limestone soils. It is owned and managed by the charity Plantlife International. There are said to be over a million Cowslips in the dale. We didn’t count them yesterday! Having seen the carpet of delicate yellow flowers up the side of the valley though, I can well believe it. Early Purple Orchids were also out, and other pretty … Continue reading Spring Flowers in Deepdale
Eyam Moor Every year the Peak District Tourist Board organise a two week long walking festival in the Peak District and today was our first walk in the 2011 festival. On a beautiful sunny day we walked from Hathersage, over the stepping stones over the river Derwent where we saw some newly hatched ducklings. Then up onto Offerton Moor and Smelting Hill, with a wealth of spring flowers to see on the way, including at lower levels bluebells, wood anemones, celandine, and wild primroses. As we got higher onto the moorland, the bilberries were in flower along with cowberries and of course gorse … Continue reading A wonderful walk!
They have started burning the heather on the peakland moors. It has been customary for centuries to burn small patches of heather during the early part of the year. This started in the days when grouse shooting was important to the local economy. To thrive, Red Grouse need a mixture of different heights of heather and low growing plants. They nest in the older deep heather and feed on the new shoots of young heather. As these birds never travel very far from their birth place, the buring of heather in small patches ensures that they always have the right mixture of … Continue reading Heather Burning
Kinder Scout is one of the most iconic landscapes in the Peak District because of its vast open moorland, the wildlife that it is home to and because it was the setting for the Mass Trespass in 1932. However, it is also one of the most damaged areas of moorland in the UK and its future is in jeopardy as a result of catastrophic wildlfires, a long history of overgrazing, air pollution and the routes that thousands of visitors have taken. There are currently proposals for a major programme of conservation work to restore the area so that it can … Continue reading Major conservation work on Kinder Scout
View Full Album There is an old wives tale that says if there are a lot of berries on the trees in then we are in for a bad winter. In autumn 2009 the trees and bushes in the Peak District were quite literally hanging with berries, and the winter of 2009/1010 turned out to be the worst that we have had for 20 years. This year there again seems to be a lot of berries on trees such as Mountain Ash, Elderberry, Holly, Hawthorne, and on the wild roses. Does that mean we are in for another … Continue reading Autumn Berries
Peak Walking Adventures Blog 