This walk was cancelled on Saturday 20th due to the yellow weather warning for Derbyshire of snow and ice, 90% chance of precipitation, 23mph wind speeds and low temperatures. Starting in Wirksworth, the target was Alport Height (314m) from which The Wrekin, Long Mynd, Clee Hill and the Malvern Hills are visible on a good day (allegedly).
Two brave VBR souls, one with very long arms, did venture out, however, on a 12½ mile walk in the snowy Vale.
Here is the route though and some photographs taken on the recce.
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| Crossing the line of the Ecclesbourne Railway before the climb up to Bolehill |
The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway
is a 9-mile heritage railway between Wirksworth and Duffield. There is
also a separate half-mile branch from Wirksworth Station up a 1 in 27
gradient incline to Ravenstor (for the National Stone Centre and the
High Peak Trail).
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| Wirksworth Station |
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| Bolehill - first climb of the day |
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| Generally good undefoot - but not always |
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| Four of the eight radio masts on Alport Height |
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| Alport Stone, a nearby 6m pillar of quarried gritstone - looking SW from Alport Height |
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| Back towards Wirksworth on part of the the Ecclesbourne Way. This is a new 11 mile walking route following the course of the
River Ecclesbourne from Duffield to Wirksworth |
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Providence Mill,
Gorseybank where narrow red tape to bind legal documents used to made by John
Bowmer and Sons from 1883 and was in use until the mid 1970s
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| Gorseybank - Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Teresa of Lisieux |
