AUTUMNAL LOOP OF STANAGE EDGE | DERBYSHIRE OCTOBER 2015

Walked around Stanage Edge on the last day of October, an ascent from Hathersage, up onto the moors and along the edge (not that one...) then back to down into the village. Kinda this route but a bit longer. Very much recommended...

NO SHEEP 'TIL BUXTON | A WALK AROUND DERBYSHIRE

Visited the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton over the weekend. As you would expect, it's very pleasant - the Pavilion Gardens in the town's centre features the opera house, tropical gardens, mini-railway & various other 19th century-era leisure aspects.

  

 Then heading out of Buxton, on land managed by the Buxton Civic Association there's woods, grassland & a quarry amongst other things...

Also close by is 'Poole's Cavern'. [ from Wiki ] The name derives from an outlaw, Poole, who reputedly used the cave as a lair and a base to rob travellers in the fifteenth century. Archeological explorations in 1981 and 1983 have suggested that the cave was occupied from the Bronze Age.

Officially opened as a show cave in 1853 by the 6th Duke of Devonshire, the cave was already a tourist attraction, being listed as one of the Wonders of the Peak by Charles Cotton in 1683. Mary, Queen of Scots, is claimed to have been an early visitor. Under the management of the Duke's overseer, Frank Redfern, the entrance was widened and, in 1859, a system of gas lamps was installed to light the caverns (one of the earliest uses of gas in this context), which remained in use until the cave closed in 1965. It reopened in 1976.

  & of course, there were sheep (though unfortunately for the eponymous (& terrible) song there were sheep before, during and after Buxton - see below...)

Filmed around Buxton, possibly inspired by...

which also inspired..