Wardlow Hay Cop

Just before crossing the busy A623 we paid homage to the Three Stags Heads Inn. I noticed that they seemed to have lost one of the stag's skulls from the outside of the pub. Maybe it should be renamed as the Two Stags Heads Inn. From the outside it has the touch of desperation to it, probably because the front door is so close to the road. The skulls don't help much either. It still seems to be in business though. A sign at a carpark on the other side of the road, indicated that it opened a couple of nights a week.

As we entered Cressbrook Dale some free ranging cows appeared around the path. Calse started shifting uneasily. She'd recently been mooting an idea about joining some organisation that lobbied for better protection for walkers, from cows. I couldn't really see how that would ever be practical. These particular cows were more interested in eating than stampeding us.

We made the short ascent up to the curious turret of Peter's Stone. Geologists think it slid down the hillside on a layer of clay. It is infamous for been the 'gibbet rock' where the body of convicted murderer Antony Liggard was displayed in 1815. A 'gibbet' by the way, is a mechanism for displaying an executed body. This could be by hanging the corpse by chains or within a cage.

We contoured along the hillside and made a steady climb up to our first Ethel of the day, Wardlow Hay Cop.

Monsal Head

I went a little astray on the descent from Wardlow Hay Cop. The path in reality differed slightly from the OS map. This meant retracing our steps for five minutes to pick up the correct path. There was consequently a lot of tutting, clucking and rolling of eyes from Mo. He has expressed a desire to do some of the navigating and my minute error fanned his ambitious flames. 'How is your navigating YouTube lessons coming along?', I asked him. 'Oh, I've not started them yet', he replied. I can't wait to put my feet up when he takes on the navigational duties.

We sat down to have a break on some benches at the top of Monsal Head. Immediately, we were accosted by several wasps. I ended up taking my break by walking around the carpark and taking swipes at the flying attackers with my hat. It wasn't long before we set off for our second Ethel, Fin Cop.

Fin Cop

When we reached the cairn on the top of Fin Cop, I turned around to look at my troops. They were a scarred and very sorry looking platoon. Calse showed me a small scratch on her forearm. 'Look!', she said pointing at the reddish area, as though I'd personally inflicted the injury. The half-hour walk from Monsal Head to Fin Cop had been a nightmare. The first ten minutes had been reasonable, but then the path had  degenerated into a jungle. I of course, had been in the lead, and taken on the brunt of the brambles and nettles, hacking my way forward so that those behind me had a much easier path. I showed Calse a huge gash in my forearm where some thorns of a bush had narrowly missed an artery. She nearly fainted at the sight of the injury, but despite this, she still seemed to think it was all my fault. After they both collected themselves and stopped their whimpering, I broke the news that we needed to retrace our steps along the very same path, back to Monsal Head. 

I also led and hacked our way back to Monsal Head. I suggested we call in at the local pub and replenish our hydration levels. I joined Mo at the bar to help carry the drinks out. I asked for a Coke, and then the bartender asked what Mo wanted. We then went into Mo Time (MoT - see Coledale Seven Heaven for an explanation) and I thought that time had actually stood still. It felt that somehow I'd walked into Madame Tussauds and everybody had turned into wax. The bar had two different lagers on draft, and this choice for Mo was obviously a difficult one and not one to be taken lightly. I didn't think my intervention would help much and so I left him to it and went outside to our table.

Buttocks

On the ascent to our last Ethel, Longstone Moor, Mo complained about a pain in his leg, or more accurately his buttock. 'Maybe you should go and see a doctor or physiotherapist', I suggested. 'Nah!', he replied. 'They'd only recommend resting it. I'm sat on my backside most of the week and so it's getting enough rest already'. Looking at Mo struggling, Calse suggested that the platoon should walk at the pace of the slowest walker. I told them that I always kept a loaded revolver in my rucksack for just such occasions, since we were on a long walk and we couldn't let our pace drop. Mo seemed to speed up and whined less after that.

We took a late lunch on the top of Longstone Moor. There was a fine view over to today's other Ethels, Wardlow Hay Cop and Fin Cop.

Our route now took us down Coombs Dale. It is a curiously boring dale. The path is enclosed by vegetation and it is difficult to see the hills on either side. It is very long too and I could see that both Calse and Mo were wishing Eyam was just around the next bend.

Eyam

At Stoney Middleton I tried to get Mo and Calse interested in its boot making history, but they were having none of it. As I diligently read an information board that described the industry in every detail, Mo and Calse just walked on. I couldn't even get them engaged in the stories behind the Lover's Stone and the Lover's Leap, halfway between Stoney Middleton and Eyam. They just wanted to finish. When I stopped to read every historical information board in Eyam, they didn't look and just trudged on. 'Look!', I said to Mo. 'There's an amazing sundial clock on the wall of the church!'. And... 'Look at this village spit for roasting a pig!'. But no, they only had eyes for the carpark. The only thing in Eyam that vaguely interested them was a Wishing Well display based on the Queen Of Hearts. It was so impressive I was amazed that it had only been voted second place in the competition. I was about to suggest that we tour the village to find the first placed entry, but Mo and Calse had wandered a hundred yards further down the road towards the carpark.

It had been a challenging walk. Not only the distance (16+ miles), but the overgrown path had sapped the strength from my soldiers. Eyam is always an interesting place to walk around, especially on Well Dressing week, but I'd suggest doing that before the walk itself or after if your company is more stalwart than mine.