The Roaches

On the path over to The Roaches summit we failed miserably to remember any significant number of  the Carry On films. It was quite surprising that we remembered so few since there were 31 one of them made. 

Halfway across to the summit we reached a small tarn called Doxey Pool. As you might expect, a mermaid  known as the Blue Nymph lives in the water. Her name is Jenny Greenteeth and she fell in the pool on a foggy day whilst walking along the top of The Roaches. Ever since she's been enticing walkers into the pool to their watery doom. There wasn't much evidence of her today though. Jenny Greenteeth is a term also used to describe pondweed or duckweed that can form a continuous and treacherous mat on the water, and that might explain her reputation.

There was nobody at the trig on the top of our second Ethel, The Roaches. We managed to get the photo duties completed before the convergence of a mass of people from the north and south. It became a little chaotic with people waiting to get near the trig. Our third Ethel, Ramshaw Rocks was visible over to the southeast. We backtracked on The Roaches track for a while and then set off  eastwards across the moors, on a permissive path.

Ramshaw Rocks

Ramshaw Rocks is a stunning ridge of rocks. There may be larger displays of rocks in the Peak District, but the ones at Ramshaw must be near the top of the list in the category of most 'unusually shaped.' It is easy to anthropomorphise what you are looking at and I was sure I spotted a seated troll on the hillside. There is another troll like rock feature further north on the crags called the Winking Man. It is said to wink at you as you drive along the A53 (heading towards Buxton). This is not because it is a troll, but a consequence of parallax when a pinnacle of rock passes behind its face. Our sedentary walking gave more of an impression of a drooping eyelid, rather than a wink. In the 1970s the Winking Man was vandalised and the pointed tip of his nose was knocked off. It does make you wonder.

There is a Winking Man pub just along the A53 and we past it when we were driving home after the walk. It had large display outside advertising a Rock Night...well, it couldn't be anything else, could it?

Merryton Low

Merryton Low, our final Ethel, was visible to the east of Ramshaw Rocks. We had to cross a valley to get to it and this involved quite a bit of descent and re-ascent. There is a military training area just north of the route and on crossing the River Churnet we encountered a flag pole saying not to proceed if a red flag is showing.  I believe this to be for a path that headed into the 'Managed Access' area and not for the footpath over to Swainsmoor farm. There is a government website that gives details of when training is taking place on this land (Google 'Upper Hulme WD Training'). 

The footpath markers across the valley from Ramshaw Rocks were sparse but did a reasonable job. Once we'd climbed up to the top of the other side of the valley, we then had a small amount of road walking to get us to Merryton Low. We came across a sheep that had got stuck in a broken sheep feeding ring. The Kapitan approached her and this scared her so much that she managed to free herself.

The area around Merryton Low's trig was covered in what looked like string mesh. Presumably this was to prevent further erosion of the summit area since it was dry and dusty. The trig had a commemorative plaque labelled with the 5th Staffordshire Leek Battalion Home Guard C Company.  Reading an Imperial War Memorials website, in 2002 there was vandalism reported of the site including the snapping of small Remembrance Day crosses. Maybe this area attracts vandals?

I'd not seen a reference to the Home Guard on a remembrance plaque before and I tried to find out the story of the listed names. It doesn't look like the men listed were in the Home Guard (source ww2talk.com):

• 14385183 STAFFORD Michael R Pte 1st Battalion The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) DoW Age 19 Anzio Italy 28th April 1944 

• 3973373 HOROBIN Leslie L/Bdr.3/2 Maritime Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery. Born Buxton Derbyshire. Presumed killed aged 20, when the SS Empire Caribou was sunk by U556 on the 10th May 1941 

• 14228231 COPE Basil Gnr. 11 Field Regiment Royal Artillery. KIA Italy 1st March 1944 age 20

• PLY/X 110320 TATTON Norman Yates Marine 47 Royal Marine Commando KIA 14th June 1944 Age 20 

While I was researching these names I came across details of a Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft crash near the summit of Merryton Low on the 13th of July 1942 (Stirling Mk.I N6075 of No.101 Squadron, C Flight). Eight crew members were killed. I couldn't see a memorial to these men.

Return To Hen Cloud

We followed a line of yellow painted posts down from Merryton Low, back towards Hen Cloud. There were groups of Duke Of Edinburgh kids walking the same route. I say walking, but most of the time they seemed to be sitting around and chatting. One of the groups ahead of us had managed to wander away from the footpath which seemed a bit odd given the yellow posts every 200 metres or so. The path brought us down through Hurdlow farm and eventually to the A53. We continued along a footpath on the other side of the road that led towards Upper Hulme. Another group of DoEs were encamped next to a beck just before entering the village. It seemed slow progress for them. We found their minibus parked in a field on the other side of the village. Another 5 minutes walking and they could have completed that section of the walk. Hen Cloud was a lot busier than this morning. Rock climbers were making their way up the high, vertical face, whilst walkers used the steep, but technically easier footpath at its side.

It was a really enjoyable walk. The highlight of the day was probably Ramshaw Rocks. 30 years had diminished my memories of this spectacular outcrop. I'm sure it won't take another 30 years before my return.