Todays walk in detail

For a bank holiday weekend it was a pleasant surprise to see 24 people assemble in Rowsley for this walk. As we left the (free!) car park the sun broke from behind the clouds and continued to beam at us for the rest of the day. We immediately struck up a steep hill, joined Chesterfield Lane and then into Copy Wood. We passed through the hamlet of Tinkersley, Northwood Carr and back down to the Derwent river valley at Northwood. We crossed the busy A6, walked past the Peak Railway yards and along the flood plain to Churchtown. There we stopped for a tea break in the Garden of Remembrance behind the church. In this churchyard the Darley Yew grows - dated between 900 and 2000 years old. We moved on to Darley Bridge, up Oldfield Lane, past Ecobat (a lead and acid reycling plant) continuing up and up to Cowley Knowl, and up yet some more along Clough Lane. We continued climbing past Barn Farm and to the Stanton Moor. We detoured to the Cork Stone - a wind eroded rock - but no-one from our group took on the challenge of climbing to the top.. We stopped for lunch at the Nine Ladies Stone Circle which is in the middle of Stanton Moor cairnfield. It is estimated there are up to 55 burial cairns from the Bronze Age on this moor. After lunch we transversed Sh#epwalk Wood, and down through the tiny hamlet of Congreave continuing downwards back to Rowsley. Thanks to Philip Bullens and his elephantine memory -sorry GPS - for backmarking. A long liquid refreshment stop was enjoyed at the Grouse and Claret in Rowsley.