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Eight walkers including one guest gathered at Birchover quarry car park for this 9.3 mile walk. Walking on Stanton Moor, passing the Reform Tower, we visited the Nine Ladies stone circle.

We continued down, briefly joining the road through Stanton Peak, before heading across fields down to Lathkilldale and heading up past Shiningbank Quarry, pausing for a coffee/tea break at the top of the track.

From here we walked across the fields above Lathkilldale before descending to rejoin and continue along it to Alport at the confluence of the Lathkill and Bradford rivers. From there we walked Bradford Dale as far as Youlgreave where we joined the Limestone Way. Given the poor weather forecast we had been very lucky but as we headed into some woods it had just started raining so we took advantage of the shelter and had lunch.

By the time we left the woods the rain had stopped and we continued on the Limestone Trail to Robin Hoods Stride. On the way there we passed another stone circle, unnamed on the OS map. I've since discovered it's four standing stones from an original nine known as the Nine Stones Close stone circle or The Grey Ladies.

We carried on down the Limestone Way before heading back up to Birchover car park. On the way back home down from the car park we called in at the Druid Inn in Birchover for refreshments. It was a very enjoyable walk with very little rain. On the journey home it could be seen there had been a lot of rain elsewhere so we had obviously been very fortunate.