Stanage edge, the Brontes and old millstones

Tuesday came round, and dawned a LOVELY day. We decided to go up onto Stanage edge, as it's been a while since we've been there.

One of the local cats was enjoying the warm sunshine as we walked up to the car.

These lovely poppies are in one of the cottage gardens.

We drove to Hathersage, parked up, and set off towards Bronte cottage, through fields of buttercups.
They were really profuse here, and it was a delight to walk through them.

All around us, fields of gold - wonderful!

This is Bronte cottage. The owner was in the garden, so we asked him the history of the name. Sue had said to me that it didn't look old enough to have been around when the Bronte sisters were, and she was right. Apparently, it is so named because Emily used to use a footpath that ran through where the house now stands. She used to stay with the Eyre family at North Lees hall.

This is North Lees hall.
It's now converted into just TWO self-catering apartments.

Our destination - Stanage edge.

As we got closer, it looked ever more inviting.
The day was REALLY warm now, and we had been walking in the shade of the woodland, but now it was time to climb onto the edge, and into the sun.

Looking along the edge to High Neb, that far point you can see.

The entry point to the top.

Once we were up there, the views opened up for us.

You can see the scar of the path up Win hill.
Mam tor has a puff of cloud above it.

Ah, what a lovely perch for two!
We decided to have an early lunch and sat in the shade of a wall, whilst looking out on the spectacular view. We listened to our first cuckoo, lapwings, fieldfare, the beautiful, haunting call of the curlew, and of course, the grouse was there too. telling us to;

'GO BACK, GO BACK, GO BACK'

Win hill, left. The shoulder of Mam tor behind, then the top of back tor peeping. Finally, to the right you can see Lose hill. The ridge behind is Kinders' southern edge.
The moor in front leads to Bamford edge. Ladybower reservoir is just over the top and in the valley beyond.

After the walk along the top, we deliberately took the path below the edge to take some pictures of the millstones. These millstones are incredible things. It looks like someone just arrived one morning, told the men to down tools and left! There are SO many stages of stones; just cut squares, ones rounded, but without holes, finished ones that were never removed. Sad really.

These were done, and ready to cart down the hill, but never got taken.

This huge one was propped on stones, ready to have the centre hole cut.

Then it was back to the meadows. The roadside flowers were now in full swing. Just to walk along these country roads is a delight, the smells of the flowers are so heavy and heady.

Finally, we went through this cool copse and made our way back to Hathersage, where we decided to have a swim in the outdoor pool there. It was a great way to finish the walk and day.