Derbyshire Dales day 3 - just one more trail

The day dawned with a cloudless blue sky and a freezing wind - the coldest day yet.   But it didn't last, before the sun could come out, it clouded over.   As we left the main building for our penthouse apartment in the Coach House, we saw a friend from last night, doing a vigorous dance while having a cigarette outdoors, presumably to keep from freezing solid.

Our final trail today was the Manifold Way, following the route of a small-gauge railway that "starts nowhere and goes to the same place" according to a critic at the time.  It is actually in Staffordshire, and was built to capture farm trade, particularly milk, and take it to via nearby market town of Leek to a waiting world, but only nine miles were built and it was abandoned, having never made a profit.    It started a few miles away from Hartington, leading south down the pretty meandering valley of the Manifold river, part cycle path and part quiet lane.   The surface was all tarmac but not necessarily smooth or well maintained, but the ever changing landscape captivated us while we were not looking out for potholes.  

Manifold Way

Thor's Cave

The trail, and the national park, ended at the nowhere town of Waterhouses, and the only large hill of the day took to the village of Ipstones, where there was a community cafe in the village hall, packed out with locals having their lunch and a natter.   Lovely to see, and great food.

The Dolly Bird Cafe, Ipstones

I promised Roger it was downhill all the way from there, and it was almost true; we were dropping down westwards to the Trent valley.   At Cheddleton we joined the Caldon Canal, which took us in a meandering way right into Stoke.   We were relieved to find it had a good surface all the way.

Kilns in Stoke

After a few stops to take photos, we arrived in Stoke with half an hour to spare before our train, which should be the end of the story, but not quite.   Our train was cancelled due to overhead line trouble.   We went to the ticket office and the person there could not have been more helpful.  He got us bike reservations on the earlier train, organised the platform guard to let us into the 'guards van' space for bikes, and we got the train 15 minutes earlier than planned.  Thank you!

It was the first time Roger and I had toured together although we've been on many day rides.   Roger seemed to put up with me very well, and I'd commend him as an excellent back marker.  He didn't lose anyone in the whole three days.   Thank you Roger for your company, for contributing some of the photos, and for being prepared to brave the unknowns on this trip.

Millennium window at Hartington Hall YH

Hartington Hall YH was a very good base for the trip, but it was quite a hilly ride from Derby station.  If you wanted to do an easier trip, Hartington is a good base for the Tissington Trail or the Manifold Way (you could spend a day doing each of them, out and back), but a better option for doing a day ride on either of the Monsal Trail or the High Peak trail would be Matlock or perhaps Bakewell.  A car would be useful to avoid the climb on the High Peak trail, and also to avoid the descent when returning, which I think would be tricky without excellent brakes and grippy tyres.

Roger's bamboo bike

< Day 2

Derbyshire Dales day 2 ‐ an adventurous circuit

I slept well, but woke a few times with anxieties about today's ride.  The plan was an ambitious attempt to join together four trails which didn't quite join up, involving some unknown off-road adventures.   First to finish off the Tissington Trail to the north, then to somehow join it to the Monsal trail, going east in a steep sided valley with no road access to the start.  This goes eastwards to Bakewell, but the next trail is only accessible by several miles of the A6, or an unsurfaced path up and over a hill.   This third trail, which didn't seem to me named, led south to Matlock, and then by road to the High Peak Trail, which comes back to near the start.  Fifty miles, mostly unsurfaced, with a fair bit of climbing.  Was it too much?

 

The plan for all three days

I had mentioned these dodgy bits to Roger when we first planned the ride, but he may not have taken full notice of what was at that stage a theoretical ride.  When we talked about it last night, he was very attentive, and pensive, but we decided to give it a go with the option of abandoning or re-routing if necessary. 

In the event, it worked out very well, as good as I could have hoped for really.  Though I say it myself, it was a beautiful, varied, adventurous,  interesting ride.  We set off in cold sunshine back to the Tissington Trail, continuing where we'd left it yesterday.  A few miles further on, at Parsley Hay, was the junction with the High Peaks Trail, our return route.  Continuing north, with glorious views, we reached the end of the trail, and then a few miles of lanes, crossed the A6 and found the bridleway down to the Monsal Trail.

  

The old station signal box (and tiny cafe)

Croatian stone shelter

The northern reaches of the Tissington Trail 

It was steep, stony and a bit slippy, but dry and without mud.  We decided to go for it, and carefully descended - a long way down - on foot, into the Dale, to be faced with a huge gorge hacked out of the rock by the railway builders.

  

Are we really going down there?

 

Yes, we are!

Made it!

The Monsal trail

Headstone Tunnel

The Monsal trail is epic.  An easy ride through a steep sided, winding valley of the river Wye, with the track high above the river on one side or the other, or going through long tunnels (well lit with tarmac surfaces), surrounded  by high cliffs or steep valley sides.  Variously called Chee Dale, Monsal Dale and Millers Dale, at various points, it was a great ride, all slightly downhill.  We enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take any pictures after the start.

 

Bakewell Tarts

All too soon we were in touristy Bakewell for an early lunch.   Roger was keen to try Bakewell pudding, but they had run out, so we shared a delicious fresh Bakewell tart.  We made the decision to risk the A6 rather than the off-road over the hill route, and it was fine - not too busy, wide enough for cars to pass safely; flat or gently downhill, still following the Wye, along what was now a wide green valley.

 

From Rowsley to Darley Dale and Matlock we followed the trail with no name, aka NCN 680.  It was lovely easy riding,, with the sunshine and a following wind.  After the genteel streets of Matlock came a shock as we turned right into the hills.  Soon we were at Cromford, for a tea stop on the pretty Cromford canal.  After a mile on  the canal we turned sharp right at High Peak Junction, onto the High Peak Trail.

 

Cromford canal

The High Peak Trail is unusual, as it was a railway with a gradient of 16-19%, and it was also built as part of the UK canal network, linking the Midlands with Manchester, via the high peaks.  250 metres of climbing meant an impossible expense to build hundreds of locks, so they built a cable-operated railway instead, to get up the slope, connected to a regular railway across the top.

 

High Peak junction
(at the bottom of the climb)

 

Sheep Pasture Top, the top of the first climb

 

Middleton Top, after the second climb

It was .. challenging ... to ride up the steep bits, especially off-road with a loose surface, but the ten or so miles across the top was heavenly,  with huge views across the limestone landscape, and unexpected sunshine.  Bordered by dry stone walls or banks of cowslips, the trail was a marvel of civil engineering, finding or forcing a flat route across green valleys or through craggy outcrops.  The surface was dry and as smooth as tarmac.  We arrived home at the hostel tired but happy after a great day out.

 

 

Lambs!

In summary, riding the Dales trails has been like touring Derbyshire without having to do most of its characteristic steep hills.  A similar tour on road would probably have involved four times the climbing, more traffic and maybe less good views.

Would I recommend it?  Well, the circuit we did is definitely a challenging ride, and the descent into Monsal Dale is only for the sure-footed; perhaps risky when wet. But it's a lovely route.  As an alternative,  each of the trails could be ridden out and back for an enjoyable day's outing on each trail.  There are plenty of cafes, except on the High Peak Trail where they're at either end.  You can avoid the big climb up to the High Peak Trail by parking at the top of the incline, at Middleton Top.

One more trail to do tomorrow, on our way home ...

< Day 1 · Day 3 >

A Derbyshire Dales Trails Tale

Heard of the Tissington Trail?  So had I, but I'd never ridden it.  It regularly features in Cycle magazine, with smiling cyclists enjoying a traffic free ride in bucolic Dales countryside.  A little research, and I discovered there were several trails in the same area.  Could they make for an interesting tour?

 

So last October, myself and Roger, a cycling friend who's also a veteran of the Tri-Vets rides, were all set to do this trip,  until Roger came off his bike a few days before, and was told not to ride for a while.  Bad luck but luckily no lasting injuries. 

We re-booked again for late April, to be assured  of good weather.  The weather bit didn't go so well - Derbyshire is even colder than London at the moment,  6-8 degrees, so we took our winter gear and caught the train to Derby from St Pancras, which is more difficult than it sounds.   There are loads of signs to St Pancras International,  but none to boring old St Pancras for UK departures.  Eventually I found someone who knew where it was, tucked away round the back upstairs, as if we're a bit embarrassed about it.

From Derby we were going to cycle to Ashbourne and Tissington, and pick up the trail, which passed near our youth hostel at Hartington.

As we pulled into Derby it was just spitting with rain, and it stayed that way most of the afternoon.  After a brief pub lunch, we set off to Ashbourne.  Gently rolling countryside and the occasional group of goldfinches kept us company on the very quiet lanes.  Signs on the bins told us we were in the Derbyshire Dales, and soon it became hilly, bur we were nearly at lovely, touristy Ashbourne, where we recuperated in an excellent tea shop.

 

To my surprise,  the Tissington Trail started at Ashbourne,  and also to my surprise,  it started with a 20 metre stretch of flooded path, leading up to a tunnel. We braved it and got through with only damp feet.

The tunnel was exciting too.   After this, the track climbed steadily at a constant 2% gradient, for ever.  (The Peak District publicity says it's "almost flat", but it didn't feel like this into the north wind.)  It was well surfaced but not tarmac.  We were distracted by the open countryside views, and entertained by the extremely steep roads that occasionally crossed the trail.  Eventually we reached Middleton Top Cutting, but it wasn't the top by a long way.  Perhaps the middle? 

 

We continued to climb, passing plenty of cafes (mostly closed), picnic areas and old stations.   Tissington must have passed without notice,  as we realised nine miles later, at the actual top.  By now it was just a couple of miles to Hartington, punctuated by a rather scary climb on a narrow footpath up a damp rock face from the trail to the road bridge.

Hartington Hall hostel is a lovely, grand old house with several outbuildings including a working farm.  And a technical problem in the kitchen preventing the serving of food.  We went to the pub instead, before retiring to our room in the Coach House.   A good day; only 32 miles from Derby but 700 metres of climbing.

Hartington Hall 

Day 2 >

Cheam & Morden Easter Tour 2024, to Eastbourne

The annual Easter Tour is a weekend away with rides on Saturday and Sunday.  This year it was attended by nearly fifty people doing on-road, off-road and non-riding excursions.  You can read the report on the C&M blog.

Winter camping

I'd been itching to go camping for a while,  but it kept on raining ... and suddenly it was 2024.  January first bought the floods and then some dry, freezing weather.  This was my chance!  I packed every bit of warm gear and headed off.   I planned to camp on Leith Hill, repeating my wonderful,  cold night under the stars from two years ago, my first experience of camping without a tent or even a tarp: just a bivi bag.

The route was simple, to try and avoid floods or ice.  Late 11s at Horton, then late lunch at Dorking, before struggling up Coldharbour Lane with my ten tons of camping equipment - mainly sleeping bags.

Around Epsom I met Jennie & David, returning from the Wayfarers A group ride, abandoned  due to ice.   I also saw my first patch of (melting) ice just there too.   There were a few more patches on the climb up to Coldharbour, and plenty more on the lumpy road around the south of Leith Hill.  The track up to Leith Hill Tower was miraculously dry, and free of ice, mud, gravel or sand.

Snow!

Arriving at Leith Hill Tower,  I was impressed to find the cafe still open at 15.45, when they shut at 3pm.  A few other people were admiring the beginnings of a beautiful sunset.  It was perishing, with snow on the grass and an icy wind.  I found a somewhat sheltered spot within sight of the tower, and made my evening meal while watching a gorgeous sunset over Hindhead(?)   Beef stew with pearl barley: not bad at all, but by the end of it I was very cold and it was getting dark, so I quickly set up my groundsheet, bivi bag, two sleeping bags (Army arctic sleeping bag and Mountain Warehouse winter sleeping bag), two sleeping mats, and got changed into a lot of warm gear for sleeping in. The temperature had dropped from 6 degrees to freezing by the time I got into bed (which is quite a performance with all those layers to organise).  I couldn't stop shivering for some time while I warmed up.   

However, it was a starry, starry night; mostly clear with just a few occasional clouds, and a new moon, so the stars were glorious.   After a while I was plenty warm enough, once I realised that I hadn't zipped up one of my sleeping bags.  I had more than twelve hours to enjoy the stars and some sleep too, as sunrise wasn't till around 8am.   With the help of Google Sky I recognised a few constellations and spotted Venus and Mars.  Saturn was supposed to be visible but it was hiding behind a tree.   Each star could be someone's Sun.   All the stars that we can see are only from our own galaxy (the Milky Way) - there are 200 billion other galaxies too, according to Google.   Mind boggling.

Some of the stars that my phone camera spotted

On this night - on this night of a thousand stars ... I also had time to think about my way home.   The problem with camping at the top of a hill on a cold night is that you have to go down again first thing in the morning.   There is no cafe to loiter in until it warms up, and you can't just stand around either.  The melted ice would be frozen again.  I could walk through the patches on the road to Coldharbour, but there was a longish stretch of water and slush on one of the steep ascents from Dorking to Coldharbour.   I wasn't convinced I could walk down that with a heavy bike.   So I decided to go back along busier roads, which I hoped would be gritted.

Dawn came fast (or maybe I dozed off again) and it was time to brave the cold.   A heavy frost covered my bags, my shoes and helmet (oops - rookie mistake), and my bivi bag.   The temperature had been down to -3 overnight, and had now come back up to -2.6 degrees.  I got dressed as quickly as I could and started to pack away, but my hands were numb so it was tricky to close bags or even feel things in my pockets.   Eventually I set off down the track (no ice), turning right onto Leith Hill Road (no ice), and ignoring Friday Street without any regrets at all, continued to the A25 (again, no ice).   Breakfast in Dorking while I recovered the use of my hands, and then an uneventful ride back home.

I would give it a 5 star rating, but it had to have at least a thousand.