Buxton & the Goyt valley

Well, the Gods were certainly smiling on Sue & I - TWO consecutive Tuesdays with perfect walking weather, even more so this week! We were joined by one of Sue's son John, so I decided to take us to the Goyt valley, and take in the ruins of Errwood hall.

We met and parked up on the outskirts of Buxton, with the sun already hot, we headed off - 'uppard's'

We were soon onto the high ground, with stunning panoramas over the surrounding landscape of the Goyt valley.

A pleasant walk along the Roman road, discussing a recent program on TV that exposed just how clever they were. We knew they were clever, but not just HOW clever - brilliant, in fact!

You can watch the program here;

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05xxl4t/romes-invisible-city
(NB - this is on i Player, so not sure how long the link will work for)

You can see a video of the view HERE

Following the Midshires way, we continued over Combs Moss until the reservoirs appeared before us. Our head navigator for the day (Sue) managed to get us slightly lost at this point, but an enjoyable walk through meadows full of flowers found an easy route to the Fernilee reservoir edge.

As you can see, it started to cloud over a little, but no rain (so far).

Lots of bluebells still in evidence as we dropped through the fields.

We hit the reservoir and turned left, making our way towards the Errwood reservoir dam.

We walked below the dam, and climbed up to the top.

A rare sight, Errwood was full to the brim today.

A veritable forest of bracken was unfolding, ready to take over the exposed ground.

Pine cones were growing too, readying their seeds for later in the year.

We turned off the reservoir-side road in the direction of the Errwood hall ruins (up!), crossing this small bridge

Banks of bluebells surrounded us.

We rounded a corner to be confronted the sad remains of the impressive Errwood hall.

Just a sad facade is all that's left now.

You can read all about it's fascinating history HERE

A grand building, in its heyday.

They even had their own graveyard, where master and servant alike were buried.

The doorway, or what's left of it.

The family crest - set in stone.

After exploring the grounds, and telling John the story, we re-joined the walk.

A lovely surprise (if you don't know it's there) is this very well preserved packhorse bridge, with the familiar very low walls, to allow the horses to pass without catching the packs on their backs.

We dropped down and crossed it, then started the climb back up to the high moors towards Buxton.

This large, green beetle was scurrying underfoot.

As is typical of these moorland walks, vast panoramas all around.

We could see the patterns of heather burning.

Angry skies formed a dramatic backdrop to the Cat & Fiddle inn, once part of the Errwood hall estate.

LOADS of bog cotton, waving in the wind.

I managed to capture this orange tip butterfly, one of my favourites.

One more flush of fabulous flowered meadows as we lost height and left the moors, before walking the last mile or so on Tarmac, back to our cars in the middle of Buxton.

We'd again managed to dodge the rain, and although cool today, we were not complaining at the weather we had.