History Repeats At Slippery Stones 

Derwent is derived from the Brittonic river name Deruentiu meaning 'belonging/pertaining to the forest of oak trees.' An oak tree was planted on the traffic island at the Howden Reservoir road terminus by George VI on the 25th of September, 1945. I'm not sure whether there are many other oaks around since the Tree Troublers have been busy in the area. It wasn't long before I crossed the River Derwent using the pretty pack horse bridge at Slippery Stones. This bridge actually started its life further downstream at the former Derwent village. The construction of the Ladybower dam meant that the bridge would be submerged and so it was dismantled and put into storage for a number of years. In 1959 it was reconstructed at this new site. A wonderful bit of recycling. It looks like history is going to repeat itself since there are plans to increase the reservoir capacity  of the reservoirs in the  Derwent Valley. Options include:

• building extended tops to the existing dams

• building higher dams in front of the existing dams (so the existing dams would be submerged

• building another dam near Slippery Stones, creating a new reservoir

If Slippery Stones does get submerged, I do hope that they move the pack horse bridge further up the valley.

Upper Derwent Valley

Some wildcampers were packing up their tent at a nice spot near the river at Oaken Bank. Further along the track, I made way for an estate worker in an electric buggy. He stopped just as he got past me and stepped out of the vehicle. 'Did you see that up there?' he pointed up to the ridge line. 'I'm not sure whether it was a Merlin or a Sparrowhawk' he told me. I'm wasn't sure whether he was expecting confirmation from me, but I'd missed it completely and I said as much. He got back into his buggy and continued down the track. I didn't hear any gun shots and so if it was a bird of prey, it should live to fight another day. The vehicle track winds itself into the landscape alongside the River Derwent until it turns into a rough track suitable only for walkers.

Ronksley Moor is on the other side of the valley to the track. I remember the wreck of a burnt out fire engine on the moors there, back in the 80s. I've no idea how they would have got a fire engine up there. The wreckage has since been removed. I did find a reference to it on Google, but there wasn't sufficient detail about the background.

 Shepherds Meeting Stones

I broke away from the river and headed upwards on a rough track to a collection of large boulders positioned on the edge of the moor. These were the Shepherd's Meeting Stones, although I didn't find any shepherds mooching about when I arrived. I wondered what they might have chatted about at their meetings. Looking at the OS map I could see that Hoar Clough runs down through the stones, and I considered whether they named that too. The stones provided an excellent place to have a rest and eat an apple as I looked back down into the Upper Derwent valley. Across the valley, I could see the boulder strewn tops of Barrow Stones and Grinah Stones. I would now make my way around the head of the Derwent  valley to get to these stones. I headed off northwards to meet up with the ridge track that goes across Featherbed Moss. I invariably lose the path on this stretch of the moor and today was no exception. A small, lonely cairn  indicates where the tracks roughly meet and eventually the small pile of rocks appeared on the horizon. Once at the cairn I started following the track around the head of the Upper Derwent valley. The OS map shows stakes along the route and indeed there  are one or two.  The track gets sketchy as it changes from westerly to a southerly direction and I lost it for a while. Eventually it got me to the top of the broad ridge between Bleaklow Stones and Barrow Stones. I now headed back east towards Barrow Stones.

Source Of The Derwent

The stretch of moor over to Barrow Stones is trackless and provided a tough challenge. The groughs are deep and it is a bit like traversing high waves of peat. I've never found an easy way through this stretch of moor. Probably the easiest way is to continue southwards until reaching the obvious track between Grinah Stones and Bleaklow Stones, and then making your way over to Grinah. I wanted to see Barrow Stones today though and so I opted for a direct route. As I neared the stones, deep in a grough,  I came across a small sign that said 'The Source Of The River Derwent.' I've walked up in this area many times over the decades but never came across this (The location is SK132967). I soon got to the southern end of the Barrow Stones and then spent the next half hour touring the natural stone sculptures. It is really worth spending some time looking around these remarkable shapes. There is one that looks like an outstretched hand that I'd seen this on previous occasions, but I just couldn't find it today. I did find one that looked like a flying duck, although you did have to use your imagination a bit. As I was pottering about I came across a chap bouldering on one of the stones. I left him too it and headed over to the track that leads down to Round Hill.

Return

Almost a year to the day, I'd been at this location (see Alport Grinah Winner) and had seen a wonderful aeronautical display from a Red Kite. As I descended down to Round Hill a Red Kite flew low over me again. Was it the same one? Who knows. It soared down into the Upper Derwent valley in search of a meal. I followed the ridge southwards from Round Hill and then south eastwards towards Ridge Nether Moor. The views from here are amazingly open and you can see for miles. The track is sketchy in places but the wide cutting of Black Dike is an obvious navigational handrail. It was cut by the Duke of Devonshire in the late 19th Century (although I assume his minions did all the work), to dry out the moor and make it friendlier for Grouse. The scale of the excavation is quite astounding (about 2.4 km in length, 30 metres across and 2 metres deep). All this environmental damage so that the Tweed Trouser Brigade could spend a day or two shooting wildlife. It's hard to believe, really. The drop down from Ridge Nether Moor into Linch Clough was just as steep as I remembered and my knees grumbled at the challenge. I emerged back into civilisation near to the carpark. Groups of youngsters were making their way along the track, presumably to soak up the sun at Slippery Stones. There must have been 30 parked cars now around the  Howden Reservoir terminus area and stretching up the road.

It had been a cracking walk with some excellent views. Barrow Stones is a Hepworth Gallery for which the entrance fee is your effort to get there. The Red Kite was a welcome bonus.