Tuesday 14th April
A late start - as planned. Weather colder and windier again today.
Harry drove us over to Mow Cop, where we had a coffee in the pub before walking up to Mow Cop castle.
Interesting place with some scary paths near cliff edges.
The village has a lot of historical connections with primitive Methodism in the nineteenth century.
Seems we missed the ‘Old Man of Mow’…
www.mowcop.info/htm/industry/oldman.htm
We celebrated my birthday with a pretty strenuous 8 and a quarter miles, over the Roaches twice, through Lud’s Church. We set off from the ex-Tea room at Hulme End at about 9.30 am, in glorious weather with blue skies and very little wind.
The ridge was as quiet as we’ve seen it, 
though plenty of people appeared later.
We saw a couple of swallows over the Doxey Pool.
We saw a superb male orange tip butterfly along the lower ridge towards Swythamley.
We had a late picnic close to the high point of the ridge on our way back. This was the only point where we felt the need to put waterproofs on against the wind.
Later on there was a spectacular sunset as we drove to Leek for a meal.
Route as on October14th 2023, with a minor variation.
Almost 1200 feet of ascent.
Sunday 12th April 2026
Today was still quite windy and cold, so we opted for a gentle five miles round Rudyard Lake. We parked at the northern end and walked anti-clockwise, doing the hilly part first.
An early and excellent coffee at the sailing club cafe on the western side enabled us to escape one shower. (NB it is not open Mondays or Tuesdays).
We got nobbled for a plant-a-seed-and-a-memory event near the dam
. 
Afterwards we took a mini detour to investigate the Earl of Macclesfield’s boathouse.
This came complete with a welcome fully functioning log fire.
Another shower caught us, but it rained only just enough to put waterproofs on before it stopped.
Friday 9th April
We walked from Monsal Head car park with its view of the viaduct, down a steep wooded path which flattened out to arrive at the weir.
We crossed the Wye and followed the footpath downstream along the river, through Monsal Dale. This is like a slightly lesser-known Dovedale, though less narrow.
It was resplendent with spring flowers -
wood anenomes, celandine, bluebells, violets, primroses, dandelions.
We had to cross the A6 at Lees Bottom, then the path went steeply uphill through Deepdale - more trees and lots of wild garlic, not yet in flower. We passed an old watermill with two wheels.
Our route lay across the A6 once more and over the old bridge into Ashford in the Water.
We lunched there on a sunny bench not far from the church.
The route back to Monsal Head climbs quite gently but steadily, along a footpath from Vicarage Lane, over a field.
We passed this typical ‘dew pond’.
We followed Pennyunk Lane which became a footpath.
And so with a glimpse of the viaduct through the trees, we arrived back at Monsal Head car park. Just over 6 miles and about 650 feet of uphill.
Thursday 9th April 2026
We were both in need of a recovery day after our two more strenuous walks!
The sunrise was stunning.
After a leisurely breakfast we went to Leek for coffee and a bit of shopping.
We had a coffee in #1, with lots of space, and interesting customers and information on the walls about Bess Bowyer and the Roaches.
We had sandwiches for lunch in Lawson’s Pie shop, then bought some excellent bread from Live Love Loaf.
Unfortunately we don’t have the funds to turn this into an arts We bought a load of veg from a stall near the market building, which is close to the central pedestrianised area.
Wednesday 8th April 2026
We set off early (before 10) to park at Errwood Reservoir.
Shining Tor walk anti-clockwise, more or less the route we took last September.
The weather began warm and ended up hot.
The views were rather hazy today.
As it was close to Easter there were lots of people out.
The summit was quite busy, so we walked down to the dip along the path and lunched sitting on a broken down wall.
Then we joined the path from Errwood to the Cat and Fiddle.
We turned left and made our way down past the remains of Errwood Hall, and back to the car park.
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6.2 miles and 970 feet of climbing.
