Day 237 - A good, long walk

Today I walked from Hayfield to Chinley and back.  From Hayfield, I followed a steep path from the road through a green tunnel of rhododendrons and holly

Then out across the fields, across Ridgetop and heading for Phoside. This was the view the east, looking towards Kinder...

You can see Kinder Downfall below, left of the centre, where there is a nick in the horizon.

I passed ruined buildings (this was an old watermill by Phoside Farm)

and streams running down hillsides.

This is Peep O Day. It was named by the man who built it because the front of the house faces east so catches the first peep of day as the sun rises over the hills you can see above. On the east facing side there is a small eye-shaped window built in to catch those first rays of sunshine. Around the 'glass eye', the stone is inscribed with the names Mary and James Goddard (the first inhabitants of Peep O Day) and the date 1841. I didn't take a clear photo but you can see one - here. The story is that as the house was being built, a friend of the builder (who walked here from Glossop each day) stopped him one day and congratulated him on such a fine choice of site, saying "Tha'll be able t' see the peep o' day" and the name stuck.

At Peep O Day, after taking a look at the view back towards Hayfield...

I crossed the road and then walked up a track heading for Mount Famine (which is not a mountain, just a hill!)

This is a view of part of South Head after walking over the slopes of Mount Famine. My planned route was a little longer than the one I walked and would have taken me further up Mount Famine and out on to South Head, but I missed a turn and changed my route (annoyingly!).

I have to mention the weather. There were times this walk felt like a walk on a summer evening. I was out in the Peak District in January walking on some high hills in a thin top and I was warm! I did have a couple of other layers in my bag, but this thin old top was plenty warm enough!

As well as warm, this was a wet and squelchy walk pretty much all the way from Hayfield to Chinley!

Below you can see Cracken Edge. That's where I was heading for a little later.

First, I walked down into Chinley and a had a twenty five minute stop at Tea on the Green, for some sparkling water and a chocolate orange brownie!

Then it was onwards, steeply uphill to the slopes of Cracken Edge.

There was a raven circling overhead

You can clearly see that this hill was once the home to gritstone quarries

There are far reaching views from up here too.  Below looks over to Mount Famine and South head and the the area I'd walked to reach Chinley.

Below is the view towards Kinder again

By this point, the sun was setting and it was a long, downhill stretch to go, over moorland and fields, back to Hayfield.

That's Hayfield below...

and again as I got a bit closer.

It was around 5pm when I got back to car and made my way home. A good afternoon's walking. Fours hours and fifty minutes including the cafe stop and coming in a little under the planned route at 9.4 miles.