I have no idea what happened to the blue skies today. I got up this morning and the rain was falling quite heavily. Breakfast TV said that it was another warm dry day, shows just how little the Meteorological Service knows about the weather. It's now tea time, or it will be soon, and it is still heavily overcast. So today, I thought that Jasper and I would walk to Glossop over Castle Hill. Castle Hill sort of looms up in a fairly quiet way as I look out of the window of the Pig Sty. (I need to explain that in case you think I'm some sort of Pork Farmer. Our little bedroom at the front of the house is my "study", but since I'm one of the untidiest of God's creatures, I call it the Pig Sty. It's also because I sort of collect Piggy Banks, but not as many as I used to do. That makes sense, doesn't it. Doesn't it?)
So we set off at about 11 am and walked up the hill to Bankswood Park. Our park is not a pretty park with flower beds such as they have in Glossop. It's more of a green field or two on a slope. At the back of the park is a wood. So you walk up a footpath at the side of the park, then walk up another footpath at the top of the wood. It's nice when it has been dry, which it has, when it has rained a lot the footpaths turn back into streams. Today it was nice, but it will be nicer still when the trees get their leaves on them. The picture at the top of the blog is taken from the top of the park looking down the slope into the body of the wood.
When you get to the end of the wood you can follow a footpath that leads along to the cemetry, but it is still too muddy to go along that path as yet, so we turned up the path and ascended to the top of Castle Hill. Here is a picture of the turning point.
It may not be pretty, but it has a rugged charm all of its own. You follow this path up for maybe ten minutes, and remember that I'm still not walking that well, but it really isn't too steep. Anyone who is a good walker will regard todays walk as a gentle stroll to get the morning paper. Castle Hill is reputed to be an Iron Age Hill Fort and it is marked on the O S Map, but not as an antiquity. It is certainly the highest place around us and you do get a lovely view from the top. I didn't take a picture of the view today as it was bleak, cold and quite miserable. However, on the top is what I think may have been a bit of a quarry at some time in the past, so I took a photo of that. I'll stick that at the bottom of the post.
Then it is up and over the summit, past the repeater mast for our Television Broadcasts and then a steady descent down Ashes Lane. At the bottom of the lane you come out onto Dinting Road so I returned home by way of one of my usual shorter walks through the fields below Dinting Road.
A very pleasant walk taking about 2 hours. Back home just in time for a lunch of Pitta Bread with salad and Caramelised Onion Houmous. Very nice indeed.
I think that my Digital Photography Class resumes at Evening School this evening, so I am looking forward to that. Here is the picture I promised you, and I'll sign out until we meet again.
When you get to the end of the wood you can follow a footpath that leads along to the cemetry, but it is still too muddy to go along that path as yet, so we turned up the path and ascended to the top of Castle Hill. Here is a picture of the turning point.
It may not be pretty, but it has a rugged charm all of its own. You follow this path up for maybe ten minutes, and remember that I'm still not walking that well, but it really isn't too steep. Anyone who is a good walker will regard todays walk as a gentle stroll to get the morning paper. Castle Hill is reputed to be an Iron Age Hill Fort and it is marked on the O S Map, but not as an antiquity. It is certainly the highest place around us and you do get a lovely view from the top. I didn't take a picture of the view today as it was bleak, cold and quite miserable. However, on the top is what I think may have been a bit of a quarry at some time in the past, so I took a photo of that. I'll stick that at the bottom of the post.
Then it is up and over the summit, past the repeater mast for our Television Broadcasts and then a steady descent down Ashes Lane. At the bottom of the lane you come out onto Dinting Road so I returned home by way of one of my usual shorter walks through the fields below Dinting Road.
A very pleasant walk taking about 2 hours. Back home just in time for a lunch of Pitta Bread with salad and Caramelised Onion Houmous. Very nice indeed.
I think that my Digital Photography Class resumes at Evening School this evening, so I am looking forward to that. Here is the picture I promised you, and I'll sign out until we meet again.
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