Creswell Crags and the Welbeck Estate, 11th September 2022

Sue's 8¼ mile walk today started at the Museum and Heritage Centre of Creswell Crags, the spectacular magnesian limestone gorge that straddles the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.  The caves in the gorge were occupied during the last ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago and contained the northernmost cave art in Europe

After walking along the gorge and past the caves, the route took us close to Whitwell Quarry and on to the hamlet of Belph before heading northeast to enter the Welbeck Estate.  After lunch we passed through Manor Hills Woods to reach the entrance to the 5th Duke of Portland's famous tunnel at South Lodge where we joined the Robin Hood Way and followed it along the line of the tunnel, across Welbeck's Great Lake and eventually back to the Creswell Gorge.

Caves on the south (Nottinghamshire) side of the gorge

Arch Cave on the north (Derbyshire) side of the gorge

Pin Hole cave on the north side

Whitwell Quarry, source of a million tonnes of high purity dolomitic limestone per year

Whitwell Quarry works

Cottage in Belph

Manor Hills Woods

Entrance to the tunnel at South Lodge

Following the line of the tunnel - on the right

Memorial dedicated to the five Canadian aircrew of a Wellington bomber which crashed near here in 1944

Today's route compared with another in the same area