stubob

This was the last visit of the day and what a crackin’ stone it is. Not too sure I get the ‘stone-triangle’.....dunno why, there are two other stones forming the triangle.....Just didn’t spring to mind that they were all part of the same thing, like the way say Ramsdale did/does.

It’s a truly smart place Blakey Topping...its conical shape when viewed from the SE similar to High Wheeldon in the Peak District.

The stone circle/alignment, although a bit worse for wear, is worth the short walk (unless Fitz’s navigating) from the Hole of Horcum. Blakey Topping makes it a must

The Manifold Valley (River Manifold = river of many folds/bends) is a long steep sided limestone valley. It begins kinda near Ecton and winds and gouges its way southwards several miles through the hills of Wetton continuing on a few miles farther before meeting up with the River Dove. Close to St. Bertrams Cave at Beeston Tor the River Hamps joins the Manifold.

There’s roadside parking at Wetton Mill, SK095 561, near to the Nan Tor Caves it’s then just a case of working your way southwards with the map references for the caves, most have a vague sorta path leading up to them.
For St Bertrams Cave, park at SK100 543, unless you wanna make a longer walk of it and continue south from Thor’s Cave to Beeston Tor Farm.

An excellent place to spend the day.....it’s sorta Creswell Crags on steroids....and even better some of the caves aren’t gated.

If you time it right during a good dry spell the River Manifold may or may not be visible.....it disappears into a large swallet by Wetton Mill or the Darfar Bridge and re-emerges a mile or so further down stream.

This fissure cave is below the West Window in Thor’s Cave, SK0985 5496.
There’s no real easy way to get round to it, I ain’t got a real head for heights so dropping down out of the ‘Window’ was a bit of a no-no. Then again going round the back of the hill and scrambling down on the wet grass and rock was a real pant-filling experience.
I also ain’t mastered using a camera with my teeth just yet, so no pics.

There could be an easy way round there... but I’m not looking for it. The fissure was in use from the Upper Palaeolithic right through to the Roman.

Seven Way’s is a bit of an odd one, SK0982 5490. Today’s entrance to the cave looks to be contained in chamber with collapsed roof, the outer rim of this ‘chamber’ can still be seen. On the northern section of the rim are 3 low arches in the rock, possibly entrances to the cave at some point.
Bit of a low dirty squeeze into the actual cave.

Quite close to the Elderbush Cave, although nearer to the crag’s edge.

Elderbush Cave is located on the SW of Thor’s Crag; follow the path around from Thor’s Cave to the back of the hill and look for a lone Elder Bush, SK0978 5488. The caves entrance is just below and to the side of this bush. A large round entrance leads into a single chamber, a narrow squeeze leads down from the floor to lower chambers, but you’ll need a bit of caving experience to get down into them.
It’s a nice enough place and nearly at the very top of the crag. Some steaming views over Ladyside.

Old Hannah’s Hole is located up a short overgrown ‘valley’ on the eastern side of the Manifold Valley, half a mile south of Wetton Mill, the Hole is at SK1002 5575.
Sited about a third of the way up the grassy slope to the left, trees and brambles block the way forward so you’ll know when it’s time to head up the slope.
Old Hannah’s Hole has the appearance of a fissure cave; quite high and narrow, easy enough to enter and perhaps 10m long.

Nan Tor is perched above Wetton Mill Farm and the tearooms next door in the upper Manifold Valley. Shortest way up to the Tor is by heading down the track to Dale Farm, then keep looking to the right for a narrow scrubby path that heads steeply up through the trees and to the caves.

Although the Tor has two large south facing entrances, it is in fact
like a swiss cheese, tunnels everywhere. And while there’s nothing tricky about them, some of them can come out on high-ish vertical rock faces, so it’s best to be careful.
One of the caves has an open air chamber, where some of the roof looks to have collapsed.

Strange place. Great views down the valley to Thor’s Cave.

I guess Shardlow isn’t really in the Peak District proper, unless of course you take the Pennines right to their bitter southern end, and finish at the Heritage Hotel (nee Pennine Hotel) in Derby City centre.
But seen as the news item on the discovery of the boat appears under the Peak District section, this is probably as gooder place as any.

In the Bronze Age Shardlow was marshy wet ground on the edges of the then River Trent. Today it’s a nice enough village on the Trent and Mersey Canal, still close to the Trent.
Sadly the area’s prehistory has been completely ruined by gravel extraction. A Henge complex, cursus and a later Iron Age settlement were replaced by gravel pits, now flooded and a mass of anglers.
Possibly the only ‘good-ish’ thing to come out of the pits apart from a ‘Windsor 3inch pea driveway gravel’ is the discovery of the Bronze Age log boat and the stone and timber causeway/walkway it was discovered next to.
The causeway was being constructed from sandstone rocks found 3 miles up river from Shardlow. It’s thought the boat was deliberately sunk with a full cargo of sandstone. Many bronze votive offerings have been recovered from the area of the causeway.

From The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel we headed along the Cumbrian Way that passes below the scree shoot and the Pike of Stickle. Then set off upwards towards the Pike calling in at the bulging bottom end of the shoot.

Then up through the bracken to the foot of the thimble shaped Pike of Stickle. We took the wide sloping grassy ledge that heads west and upwards before traversing eastwards to the quarried rocky ledges directly above the gulley of the main axe factory site. It’s a bit of a hairy route and you can end up feeling pretty exposed on some of the eastern ledges. But it gives you an impression of what it might’ve been like working up here.

After copping for some of the best views in the Lakes on top of the Stickle (Ingleborough is visible on the southern horizon on a good day); we headed off to Loft Crag before descending its buttress to pick up the path below Gimmer Crags. The smaller scree shoots here also contained many chippings and cast offs from axe production.

Much like Graig Llwydd in North Wales where the axe factory scarred the mountain with a deep notch. The workings here appear to have separated the Pike of Stickle from the rest of the Langdale Crags.
All in all a chuffin’ top place....

It’s a short climb up the hill opposite Raisgill Hall to the ring cairn, which is located above the old lime kiln visible from the road.
It’s a bit of an uninspiring site overall, but the views over to the Howgill Fells help it along.

NY41640 05884.

This is a great double circle. Although it’s been battered, enough remains to get a feel for what the stone circle might’ve looked when un-disturbed.
Unlike the RMS entry we thought there are perhaps 6-9 stones left in the outer-circle, only 3 now built into a wall remain upright. The other possible stones are now fallen and are at ground level.
The inner circle stands on a large mound (well large for the circles 20m outer diameter), and has 3 remaining stones.
Excellent views to the east out over the Tongue to the high ridge that includes Forswick, Ill Bell and Yoke. Whilst to the north Threshthwaite Mouth.

There’s room to pull off the road that heads through Troutbeck and then Town Head, at NY414 062, bang opposite the ‘bridleway’ you need to take. Follow it down for 0.25miles to an old slate quarry, the track passes through the actual circle.

To add to Ironman’s and Chris’ comments about the size of the Cop Stone.
When viewed at a distance from various points on the moor the stone appears to be much larger than it actually is when you’re up close and personal like.

Another site along with Little Round Table that had been bugging Fitz and myself for some time.
In July the circle was pretty bracken covered, it wasn’t helped any further by being on the edge of a limestone pavement. The only thing that gave the circles location away was the wooden post planted in its centre.
The embankment(?) of the circle was constructed of chunks peeled away from the pavement, several granite stones stood out within this embankment.
A gnarled limestone block in the circles’ centre being the highlight and most obvious feature of the monument.
After walking across the limestone pavement and seeing the stones used to construct the circle, we both came away thinking about the stones in the circle of Arbor Low.