With most of the usual suspects being away on the Paignton holiday, it was not a huge surprise when only 3 walkers (including one guest, Angeline) turned up for this 9-miler from Monsal Head, led by Mike Field.
We did an anti-clockwise circuit via Monsal Dale, Deep Dale, the Magpie Mine (a disused lead mine), the unusual and slightly spooky Little Shacklow Wood, and Ashford-in-the-Water (the lunch stop).
Along the way we saw lambs, various wild flowers including Early Purple Orchid; a green roof; a chaffinch, on a branch only a couple of meters away; and in Little Shacklow Wood, wild garlic. Blackbirds and skylarks were singing lustily.
We also saw several other groups of walkers, including Stone Ramblers on a route similar to ours, and a large contingent of young people (broken down into smaller groups) who passed us in Deep Dale carrying paper maps and large backpacks with sleeping mats, evidently on some kind of outward bound wild camping challenge.
The weather was sunny with occasional light showers, including a brief shower of hail at the Magpie Mine. It was significantly warmer than when we did the recce, so as the Stone Ramblers Facebook page says, it was "a coats on, coats off sort of day". They also posted a photo of the Early Purple Orchid.
Stone Ramblers Facebook post about their walk
Heavy rain fell as we were driving home, however.
Unusually, the Magpie Mine had a volunteer present, and the visitor centre was open, where we handled, among other things, a lump of galena (lead sulphide, the type of lead ore that was mined here) the size of a small cabbage - which was much heavier than expected!
The mine has an open day on Sunday 24th May, as we learned from a publicity poster at the site.
Mike Field
Early Purple Orchid (according to Google Lens)
