Ashbourne to Tunstead Milton in 5 Days

Jan and I have done lots of treks around the world but just day walks on our doorstep in the Peak District. I did walk the Pennine Way in 1974 which starts in Edale 8 miles from where we live now but that’s the only exception. So we decided to change that by walking from Ashbourne to our home in Tunstead Milton. I took the maps out and could see the Limestone Way went in roughly the right direction. That became the core of the walk for about 3 of the 5 days.

Our trip started by catching the bus to Buxton and then the bus to Ashbourne. This was a bit under 2 hours travel time. Then we will walk north for 5 days to get home. Our overnight stops are Ashbourne, Brassington, Youlgreave, Tideswell, Edale and home. A total of about 50 miles, so roughly 10 miles a day.

Ordering Black and White Fine Art Prints

If you would like a black and white print as a memento of your trip, all of the black and white images are available. They were taken with a Mamiya 7 camera on Ilford 120 film and are available as high quality hand made darkroom prints in a range of sizes from 40x30cm to 70x70cm (size refers to mount and frame, image is a few cm smaller).

They all have a 6 digit number at the end of the title to uniquely identify the negative to help ordering – just type this number into the search box in the UK Landscapes Gallery and it will show the image and ordering information. Not all images are included so if you can’t find the ones that interest you just send me an email using the Contact page form on this website and we’ll sort out the details between us.

Monday 25th September 2017 Ashbourne to Brassington

Looking out of the window of our room everything was wet, but it wasn’t raining at 7.30am. Unfortunately the forecast was for rain through the day. In the end the whole day was dry. We started in Ashbourne having stayed at the George and Dragon Hotel. The food and beer was good as was the service.

After breakfast we left the hotel at the crack of 10am and headed north towards the Tissington Trail. We followed this for a few hundred metres, then turned onto our footpath to Thorpe village. From the approach to the village it looked like we were in limestone country with Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill as the backdrop. In fact we joined the Limestone Way just before Thorpe village. This long distance path goes from Rocester south of Ashbourne to Castleton. First Limestone Way sign, Thorpe

A mix of fields and hillsides got us to Tissington and on to Parwich and as luck would have it the Sycamore Inn was open. It was 7 miles from Ashbourne so a good time for a break. Then it was just 3 more miles to Brassington. 

We had booked into the Miners Arms and waited outside for the 4.30pm check-in time agreed earlier (the pub was shut until the evening). Unfortunately no one turned up. Jan rang the landlord and he arranged for someone else to come to the pub and let us in, no explanation as to why he wasn’t here as agreed a few hours earlier. The room was up 2 flights of steep stairs and very old fashioned, soft mattress on the bed and the bathroom was down a flight of stairs and along the passage. Not exactly the ensuite Jan had booked! After a quick discussion we left.

Fortunately, our luggage had been delivered there.

Jan rang the only other accommodation listed in Brassington, the Manor House Guest House. They had a room and were just 200 metres down the road next to the other pub! We moved there. What a contrast. Nice welcome, excellent room.

Next door was the Olde Gate Inn. Very cosy local, excellent Pedigree beer, good food and a landlord that stopped for a conversation with his customers! Why don’t more people running pubs do that these days? In the end we had a good evening but it was no thanks to the Miners Arms.

Tuesday 26th September 2017 Brassington to Youlgreave

It was day 2 of our trek from Ashbourne to Tunstead Milton. Today we started in Brassington and walked to Youlgreave, same mileage as yesterday, 10.5 miles.

We were well looked after by Sarah at the Manor House Guest House, had a good breakfast, gave our case to the punctual luggage transfer man from Bakewell, then set off for Winster. Jolly nice day, bright spells and warmish. Good weather for walking!

So many quarries in this part of the Peaks. Lots of lorries to go with them too. Thankfully we were mostly off busy roads. Quite a few good views but between the quarries and power lines I didn’t see any shots worth taking on my Mamiya 7 camera.

Our route took us down into Winster but the Bowling Green pub was closed on Tuesdays. We headed back up the hill where it was a relief to find the Miners Standard pub open. A jolly nice pint of Pedigree was my liquid lunch.

From here we headed towards Elton and on to Robin Hoods Stride Rocks. The grey sky was clearing so we waited a few minutes. I ran off a bit over 1 roll of Ilford 400 Delta before moving off.

From here it was on to Youlgreave. Our hostelry for the night, the Farmyard Inn, was closed when we arrived before 4pm, as was the Bulls Head, so we had a pint in the George Hotel.

Good food and a comfy room at the Farmyard Inn. What a relief after yesterday’s stutter.

Wednesday 27th September 2017 Youlgreave to Tideswell

It was a bit of a grey day but stayed dry all day, again. Breakfast was slow, but good, so we eventually left at 10am. We started by walking down to the river at the foot of Lathkill Dale.

The gorge is very steep sided here so on a dull day like today it was too dark for pictures. A few dog walkers were out but no-one else.

We climbed out of the dale and across a plateau area, down into another part of Lathkill Dale, up the other side and along under some large vertical limestone cliffs. From here it was just a short stretch to Monyash.

As luck would have it the Bulls Head pub was open so we decided to have a break, it was 12.30pm.

From here we made our way to Flagg, then to the A6 at Taddington before dropping down to Millers Dale. As luck would have it the Anglers Rest was open, at 3.15pm, so we stopped for a break.

Tideswell was just a couple of miles away from here, up a steep slope then across some fields and down into the village. The George Hotel was to be our hostelry for the night.

Our good friends Mick and Kay from Inverness were down touring around England and we arranged to meet up for the evening. It was a good night.

Thursday 28th September 2017 Tideswell to Edale

After breakfast we went outside into the sunshine. Yes, at last we had a sunny day with the odd white fluffy cloud. There could be some proper photos today on my Mamiya 7!

I started with Tideswell church, commonly known as the Cathedral of the Peak. There was a very nice Silver Birch tree with leaves on the turn so I put the yellow filter on to brighten the yellowy leaves. Here’s the colour phone version.

Then it was up onto the moors above again. Lots of wide open spaces and big views, especially to Mam Tor and Kinderscout. Then it was time to go down into Castleton by the slopes next to the Castle. I also took a photo of Cave Dale from above with nice light and shadows. 

Then it was down to the Nag’s Head for lunch and a pint. We left the Limestone Way in Castleton as that’s where it finishes. From here we headed for Hollins Cross and down to the Nag’s Head in Edale. It was quite warm walking up to the pass but a bit of a breeze near the top helped.After a pleasant pint of Nag’s 1577 we headed a few hundred yards down the road to our accommodation for the night, the Ramblers Inn.

What a great day of hill walking! Unfortunately, there was no WiFi. Fibre broadband has just been installed in Edale and they haven’t got it working properly yet. 

Friday 29th September 2017 Edale to Tunstead Milton

After four dry days, especially yesterday’s cracking day, we woke to heavy rain. It didn’t look promising and we couldn’t check the forecast as there was no phone signal and no WiFi. There wasn’t much point anyway, we just needed to get going and walk home as this was the fifth and final day of our trek.

The first section was across fields at the foot of Kinderscout and along the valley track from Upper Booth to the bridge at the foot of Jacob’s Ladder. This is now the official route for the Pennine Way but when I did it in 1974 it went straight across the Kinderscout plateau to the Downfall.

From the top of Jacob’s Ladder there was a motorway path of stone slabs across what used to be a wide path across a deep bog. We headed for South Head. The rain had stopped after about 90 minutes but there was a chilly wind so we had to stop and find our hats and gloves.

The last section was still a trackless bog…. the slabbed path had run out. From here it was a short climb to the top of South Head, the final hill of our route.

I walk South Head several times a year, it’s one of my favourite Peak District views. From South Head we headed down to Chinley and then the Old Hall Inn in neighbouring Whitehough. After a final pint we skirted around the side of Eccles Pike, across some fields and down the path to arrive home in Tunstead Milton, 5 hours or so after leaving Edale 10 miles away.

In summary, we walked for 5 days, 56 miles, 4 dry days including 1 sunny day, 90 minutes of rain, 35 images on Ilford 400 Delta using my Mamiya 7 camera with 65mm lens and mostly yellow filter but a few with an orange filter. All the photos on this blog were taken on mobile phones.

Oh, we also visited 13 hostelries along the way and I tried to keep to the government recommended 5 a day, I assume it refers to pints of real ale. That makes it about 18 mpg beer……..