Carl Wark And Ox Stones

I managed to pick a route down Higger Tor's south face and headed over to Carl Wark. This was used as an Iron Age fort and looks like a smaller version of Higger Tor. Rather than attack its north face I headed eastwards down into the valley, crossed Burbage Brook using the stone foot bridge, and headed straight back up the other side. As I crossed Burbage Moor half a dozen cattle grazed on a grassy patch in the midst of the heather. They looked rather content.

I reached the Houndkirk Road and started heading northwards along it. Sometimes trail bikers ride along this track but all was quiet today. After 10 minutes I headed back on to Burbage Moor again, towards Ox Stones. I can't really say either of the stones look like an Ox. They are quite large though and aesthetically pleasing. Photos taken, I headed towards to the Brown Edge quarries.

Blenheim Z5746 And Redmires

On the 26th of January 1941, Blenheim Z5746 crashed here during a snow storm. All three crew members. They were a trainee crew on a training exercise. The area is now covered in deep heather and I didn't find any crash wreckage or memorial.

I followed a sketch path around the quarry. I was quite surprised at the depth of some of the drops. A short climb took me to the top of Rudd Hill where there is a well made stone shelter. This vantage point revealed my next objective of the day: the Redmires Reservoirs. There are 3 reservoirs and these are imaginatively named, Upper, Middle and Lower.

I made my way down towards the end of the Redmires Road and then doubled back to walk the path around the reservoirs. At Middle Redmires I looked up to see two buzzards circling above the reservoir. Unfortunately, I hadn't got my long lens and couldn't get a good shot. It was a shame since the sun was hitting the underside of their wings revealing great colours and patterns.

At Lower Redmires a convoy of Canada Geese floated on the extremely choppy water. I wondered whether any of them got seasick. I was getting queasy just looking at them.

Stanage And The Vampire

I did begin to question my decision to include High Neb when I got battered by a crosswind blasting over Stanage Edge. I plodded valiantly on. It seemed to take an eternity to get to the trig. I struggled to remain upright in the winds as I took the summit photo. I headed off on a bearing to the aircraft crash site of Vampire XE866.

On the 7th of August 1957 Vampire XE866 was on a training flight with instructor P. R. Jones and pupil D. Brett. They'd been given a radio instruction to drop 6,000 feet and to make a turn to port. It is probable that they misread the altimeter resulting in the crash. Policemen attending the site said that both bodies had been cut in half by the force of the impact, with the upper parts being in Yorkshire and the lower parts in Derbyshire. I made a mental note not to wildcamp around here. I couldn't find wreckage or a memorial.

I headed over to the well built shelter southeast of High Neb's summit to try and get some brief respite from the wind. I was disappointed to find it occupied by a smug looking fellow reading a book. There was nothing for it but to battle on.

White Path Moss And The Cowper Stone

The rock climbers had not been put off by the high winds. They are a hardy bunch. One group had secured the rope around a boulder about 20 metres from the edge so that walkers had to hop over it or limbo under it. I decided to go for Fosbury Flop, although you probably won't see me at the next Olympics.

Stanage Edge terminates near the trig at White Path Moss. I boulder hopped to the trig and then waited for a break in the wind to take a summit photo of the last Ethel of the day. The break in the wind never came and so I took a photo anyway.

The path drops down from the trig on to a stone slab path. On the rock outcrop to the left, a huge boulder can be seen at the very end. This is Cowper Stone and is really quite impressive. To me it looks like an apartment block falling down the hill.

Wellington Z8980

I'd debated whether to include the aircraft crash site of Wellington Z8980 on my route. It meant a 30 minute out-and-back walk from where I'd parked my car. Despite my struggles with the strong wind I didn't feel particularly tired and so I decided to go for it.

On the 17th of July 1942 Wellington bomber Z8980 crashed on a training flight near Rudd Hill. Amazing all 5 crew members survived. They were lucky in that 20 members of the Home Guard were nearby to mount a rescue. The crash was due to a navigational error, they had mistook Nottingham for Leicester.

My hopes raised as I followed my gps to what looked like wreckage on the moor. You can imagine my disappointment when I found it to be what looked like some weather monitoring apparatus. A camera was attached to a nearby pole that was probably some security deterrent. I waved to the camera. Odd that they should set this up on an old crash site.

So that was three aircraft crash sites visited today and not one sign of wreckage. I did tick off four Ethels though and added Redmires to my Yorkshire Reservoirs Venture. Despite all this ticking of lists it had been an excellent walk anyway.

Postscript

I was a bit suspicious that I'd not seen any wreckage at the crash sites I visited. I'd taken the grid references from Ron Collier's Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks (Vols 1 and 2). I double checked these with an aircraft crash website and it looks like Ron's grid references were way off....I'd been looking in the wrong place for the Vampire and Wellington crash sites! I can't find any alternative co-ordinates for Blenheim Z5746 and so I'll have to trust Ron was sober when he wrote that chapter of his book. I'll be double checking his grid references in future though. And, of course, I'll revisit the Vampire and Wellington crash sites with (hopefully) correct co-ordinates at some point.