A Tour of Mam Tor & Ladybower

The first adventure of 2019 and the destination was an old regular of mine: Mam Tor, near Castleton in Derbyshire. I’ve been plenty of times before but today I ventured with two new walking buddies from work.

Dan wanted to cleanse his mind and go for a wander in the Peaks, and so came to me for suggestions. I suggested we drag Alan along and visit Mam Tor because it’s a very simple walk and a nice place to take photos. At 6:15 on 9^th January, Dan and I pulled up outside Alan’s house to pick up our final team member.

Now usually when I go on these walks, I go with people who are fully prepared. However, neither Dan nor Alan had walking boots. Alan didn’t even have thermals on or a hat. Let me remind you that it is before dawn in early January, and we were going up a hill. I’ve had my own experiences of walking down Mam Tor in unsuitable shoes – I spent most of the descent on my arse.

The National Trust car park is literally a ten minute walk from the top but it was fun to watch the two old boys (particularly Alan) getting out of breath. Don’t smoke kids! Still, it was nice to get to the top. The winter wind was light, the views were great, and the summit was empty of people. Kerching.

The sky was bright and clear but the sun had not yet risen above the cloudy horizon. This was my third attempt to catch the sunrise on Mam Tor. Once it was too cloudy, and once I drove for an hour only to be forced around by heavy snow 5 minutes from the car park. But today it was third time lucky as the sun finally started breaking through the cloud. My fellow T.W.A.T.S. founder Brendan was not happy on Snapchat that he hadn’t been invited. Sorry brother.

Photos taken and Snapchat stories updated, we began our descent. I went first because I was wearing proper walking boots and also so I could film the other two inevitably slipping over.

It didn’t take long.

I must admit, even I fell on my arse eventually. Karma is real.

The walk down Mam Tor’s south side brings you to the old A625 road. WARNING. You might want to skip this paragraph because it’s about to get really boring. The Mam Tor section of the A625 is an old piece of ruined road, abandoned because local councils got fed up of rebuilding it. Mam Tor’s name means “mother hill” because the hill “gives birth” to smaller hills in frequent landslides. On numerous occasions in the 20^th Century, landslides destroyed the road until traffic was rerouted through Winnats Pass in 1979. I have a fascination for old maps and old unused roads so I like to visit this bit of Derbyshire, OK?!

Still here? Or welcome back if you jumped ahead. Our history lesson is over. I think Alan and Dan initially found my history lesson boring too, but I cling to the thought that even they found the site a little intriguing.

We settled down on a bench to watch dawn take hold of Hope Valley.

The plan was to head over to Winnats Pass and along the rocky ridge there, eventually ending up in Castleton. However, Dan was starving and wanted food, and put me in the mood for a fry up, so we headed back to my car.

We arrived at the main car park in Castleton. We didn’t want to go to the cafe at the visitor centre – we wanted to visit a local cafe for local people, and thus wandered over to the Three Roofs Cafe. It was closed. For the day. We walked back over to the visitor centre. It was also closed, but opening in 20 minutes. We sat on the picnic bench and waited. Cold. Dan initially sat on the table bit of the bench and looked like a right yob in his cap with vapour pouring from his face. Knowing that Castleton’s locals would not stand for such chavvish behaviour, I asked him to sit like an actual human being.

Only when the cafe finally opened did I wonder why we spent 20 minutes sitting out in the cold rather than in the car just yards away…

Breakfast was alright tbh! It did take a while to come, but I suppose we were the very first customers. Dan tried black pudding for the first time. He wasn’t a fan. Incredible. Over tea and sausages we discussed where else to visit on this fine day and an answer arose: Ladybower reservoir. Brendan is always over at Ladybower taking photos, yet I have never visited, despite it being just around the corner from Castleton. It seemed apt that the day I attempt a Mam Tor sunrise without him should also be the day I visit Ladybower.

We parked up at Heatherdene car park (shout out to the old couple who changed my fiver for some coins for the ticket machine – I bet they’re reading this) and tootled over to Ladybower Dam.

That’s a big plughole. Imagine falling in… There was one on the other side and Alan tried to climb up onto it. The outer wall is about 10ft high but he climbed some big rocks to try and get up – and nearly actually broke a bone when they crumbled.

We continued walking around the reservoir in a clockwise direction. On this side of the water we could take photos of the bridges carrying the Snake Pass. We had a photo on the shore.

It’s also a great place for some stone skimming. Dan was absolutely awful. He threw one embarrassing stone and gave up. Is there really an art to stone skimming?

Before gracefully returning to the path.

We continued walking between the water and the silent wood. Alan noted how quiet and devoid of wildlife it was. Passing birds were a rarity.

At this point I contemplated turning us back the way we came because the nearest bridge across the water was miles away and it would take us ages to walk around the whole reservoir. However, Dan insisted that it wasn’t far at all – literally just around the corner.

Alan lowered the tone considerably by musing that this area would be a good place to murder someone. OK mate.

Three miles later and we finally, finally came across a footbridge and we were super excited to walk all the way back. Our excitement reached its peak when we realised there was no footpath along the Snake Pass, and now we were walking on the curb of one England’s most infamous roads. Good one, Dan! The cars were speeding past leaving us inches of room and people were beeping at us. Bloody fools. Us, I mean.

Three miles later we made it onto the big bridge we’d had selfies in front of, and the blessed return of a footpath. I don’t think our fellow walkers were impressed by our choice of music. I suppose rustic Derbyshire isn’t ready for hardcore gangsta rap. These horses liked it though and I made some new friends.

I gave them some grass. I don’t know if they were impressed.  With tired feet and shaken nerves, Alan, Dan and I dropped by the Ladybower Inn. Dan had the quickest shit ever – I hadn’t even finished at the urinal and he pulled the flush. He doesn’t mess about. We squeezed in a pint before hitting the road home to beat the rush hour traffic.

Here’s some things I learned about rambling with Dan and Alan.

1. Alan doesn’t have suitable clothing
2. Get used to walking through second hand vape
3. Be careful with Alan around puddles
4. Don’t trust Dan with directions
5. Dan does quick shits

Anyway, it was a good day around Castleton, as always! Definitely worth a visit if you’ve got a day free!