At over half a mile long, Alport Castles is thought to be the largest landslip in the UK. The debris from the landslides has formed some huge towers of rock that from a distance resemble castles – hence the name. It’s a place that reminds me of The Old Man of Storr, on Skye in Scotland.
The Alport Castles are in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, just north of the Snake Pass and north-west of the Ladybower reservoir. Brendan, Andy and I would convene at the Hope Woodland car park for a 16km round trek to see the Castles.
BUT FIRST.
Whilst Brendan was exploring Nottingham (and most definitely using the VidOnTour blog on Nottingham as his guide), Chef Andy BBQ’d me some chicken wings. The perfect protein prep for a twilight hike!
We chose to visit the Castles in the evening because this was the hottest day of the year, and we didn’t fancy dying of heat exhaustion.
At the car park that evening, Brendan set up a route for us to follow on Strava. The first stage of the trail took us through the Snake Woodland.
It smelled nice and piney. It also kept us out of the sun for a bit.
The route took us by some baby Christmas trees and some pwetty flowers.
Foxgloves were pretty common on this route. The strange, square-shaped flower was very rare. We only found the one, beside the scorched earth of a bonfire.
Eventually the trees run out, and you’re spat out onto the unsheltered, rolling moors of the Peak District.
Andy and I had decided to rep the Koh Samui Bodega. The bright vests would be easy to spot in the dusk if one of us were to fall behind.
We saw very few people. The hot weather had scared them away – which is great when you want to social distance, or you just dislike people! We did however spot Frodo and Sam.
After many a stile and field, we finally rounded a hill and found a stone track.
And there she was, on the other side of the valley.
The UK’s largest landslip.
Crossing the valley means crossing the River Alport.
Here I am enjoying the view, whilst Andy ruins it by singing Les Mis.
From the bridge over the River Alport, the hike truly begins. It was finally time to test my knee out. Did I mention I crashed a moped in Thailand a few months ago? Did I mention I broke my shoulder? I’m not sure if I did. Anyway, I also did something to my knee – there’s a bony lump at the top of my tibia that hurts if I try to do anything too active. Woe with me. This hike was a test to see if I could physically climb Snowdon again!
The climb brought us back into the sun. It looked like we may have timed reaching Alport Castles to coincide with sunset…
If we could actually get there. I think Brendan was a little disappointed in the fitness of his two friends.
The hike soon turns into a scramble over rockfall, but amazingly we made it!
We could see why people mistook this place for a motte and bailey castle.
My knee was sore and tbh I was a little gutted when Brendan joyfully urged us on to climb the actual castle. He scrambled up the rock like a Moria goblin as Andy and I took the long, safer route up.
*takes out a violin* One major issue with my knee is it makes me feel unbalanced, so I’m always nervous getting up onto these boulders.
But yaknow, gotta do it for da Gram.
Brendan looked a little cooler in his photo.
Now it was time to enjoy a celebratory beer and watch the sun go down.
Kings of the Castle.
It had taken us two and a half hours to get to the castles and it was now around half 9. It may have been mid June, but the sky wouldn’t be bright for much longer! Soon, Andy and I were the brightest things in the Pennines so we made our way down, steadily. My knee is always worse when I’m descending so I was extra careful. I didn’t want to end up like this sheep.
DANGEROUS UP ERE.
Tonight’s moon wasn’t much of a beacon either.
Very soon we needed some artificial light, but all we had were two tiny torches. There was much stumbling and a few falls. FFS DAVID, GET YOURSELF A PROPER TORCH.
We arrived at the car park at around 11:30pm, where we discovered Brendan’s Strava had not worked cos of the lack of signal. Well done, Strava. Here’s Brendan’s manual input!
Here’s some good news though! My knee was alright! Sore, but not in agony! Take THAT, doctor who told me I should rest it as much as possible.
#VidOnTour 