Good afternoon from Wetton!
It’s a lovely little Staffordshire village in the southern end of the Peak District. The weather had forecast showers and the drive over had featured warm sunshine and torrential rain. Tim dressed for rain, whereas I (ever the optimist) dressed for warmer, drier conditions. Time would tell who had the right idea…
If ever you want to visit Thor’s Cave, you have a choice of parking spots. You can park in Manifold Valley and hike up to the cave, or you can park here at Wetton car park, which features a W/C and inquisitive cows.
However, be aware that this is a very small car park – so inevitably fills up on the weekend. Luckily for us, it was Wednesday!
Today’s destination was Thor’s Cave, but we would be taking the long way around. There are two Ethels in the area so obviously, we were gonna bag ‘em.
Wetton Hill
Heading north out of Wetton will quickly bring you to Wetton Hill.
There’s no clear path across the hill, but so long as you skirt around the walled enclosure, you won’t find yourself boxed in. As we got closer to the summit, the heavens opened.
Tim looked smug. I was regretting my choice of trousers.
Getting wet on Wetton Hill.
Annoyingly, that morning I had re-found my waterproof trousers – tbf I had forgotten I’d bought them – but I reckoned we’d be lucky with the rain. Alas.
Thankfully the shower passed quickly and as we made the final ascent, the sun shone.
There’s no cairn on Wetton Hill, but the summit is easy to spot.
Wetton Hill bagged. It was amazing to share this incredible achievement with some uninterested sheep.
Ecton Hill
Atop Wetton Hill, we could see our next Ethel – Ecton Hill – a relatively short distance away. However, the skies looked foreboding.
Yep, that hill about to be absolutely doused – that’s where we were heading. It’s gonna be a wet one.
We plodded down Wetton Hill, which was tough on the old 30-year-old-knees, and became one with the water.
We hid in the trees for a bit, hoping the shower would pass. It didn’t, so we continued on.
It was at this moment on the very, very muddy path, I realised I’d chosen the wrong boots for the day. I had no grip on the wet stuff. This was gonna be a fun day.
We came to a road, but still I was slipping a bit on the wet inclined tarmac. Soon we left the road and returned to mud and grass.
The rain became heavy again.
Oh it was lovely. We kept our heads down and headed straight for the trig point.
Bagged it.
Smiling through the rain.
With Ecton Hill bagged, we ran for the trees.
They didn’t provide much shelter tbh, but we waited 10 minutes for the rain to die down.
From Ecton Hill you can view the tiny but lovely hamlet of Ecton in the Manifold Valley. We decided to take a small detour on our walk and head straight into the valley, feeling the trees would provide more cover for when the rain inevitably got heavier.
In these conditions, the path down was perilous.
You couldn’t hold onto the vegetation for support unless you like thorns in your hands. It wasn’t long before the inevitable happened.
I was amazed it wasn’t me with my very grip-less shoes.
After ten minutes of careful descent, we made it to the road at the bottom of the valley, where Tim could clean himself in a puddle like an overgrown pigeon.
Ahead of us was just over a two mile walk through the valley to Thor’s Cave, with conditions underfoot much more stable. Manifold Valley is a very peaceful, very pretty place to visit – even in bad weather.
We passed through Swainsley Tunnel, which offered blessed relief from the rain.
There are signs warning motorists that police often patrol the tunnel and seize the cars of anti-social drivers – so no loud music, no aggressive driving through here! The locals don’t like it. You are allowed to get all Instagrammy though.
There was a light at the end of this tunnel. Sadly, it was a wet light.
Eventually we reached Wetton Mill, which is a good place to park if you fancy a more picturesque and uphill walk to Thor’s Cave.
The Manifold River was very low – surprising considering the rain we’d had. The water is very clear and if you’re lucky you can spot little fishies.
There’s a tea room at Wetton Mill where you can use the toilet and buy hot refreshments. I quite fancied a coffee but Tim informed me he’d never tried coffee and didn’t fancy a nice warming drink. Strange guy.
Further down the valley, someone had draped a woolly sweater over a wire, supposedly as a threat to the sheep in the field.
Here’s another place to park for Thor’s Cave, but I have seen this small space very full of cars before.
Soon we saw a hill with a hole in it.
The rain was getting heavy again, so the sanctuary of the cave was more enticing. We crossed a footbridge over the River Manifold and saw it was completely dried up at this part.
This time last year I was skimming stones here… Do I blame global warming?
The path to the top was very muddy, but there were lots of stepped sections so it isn’t too hazardous.
It was just a ten minute climb from the footbridge, and we were fortunate to enjoy the cave without any other visitors.
Getting in was tricky as the rock was very slippy. Amazingly there were no falls and we could take a well earned rest inside.
Timmy had a little explore whilst I chilled on a rock. Sadly because this is a fairly popular tourist spot, you’ll always find rubbish and dirty tissues and graffiti in deeper parts of the cave cos yaknow, humans are disgusting.
As if Mother Nature was mocking us, the rain that had doused us for over two hours stopped as we got to the cave mouth. And the ACTUAL second we slid out, it began again. Yay!
We made our way around the back of the peak and headed back towards Wetton, ¾ mile away. You can take a path to the summit of the rock and take in the views of the valley, but I was fed up of being wet and gave it a miss.
Of course, as soon as we made it back to Wetton, the rain stopped again. We were both muddy and absolutely drenched. But we weren’t too cold and it had been a lovely walk. The benefit of heading out to the Peak District in changeable conditions is the lack of other people – god I sound so antisocial.
Two more Ethels bagged. 27/95 – 68 to go.
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