WALKS WITH NELLIE! – BEELEY –

This is not intended as a walk guide

This turned out to be a gem of a walk incorporating some woodland wandering, ideal for shade in the glade on a hot summer’s day.

I parked at the top of Hell Bank Plantation by the closed road sign above Beeley where the route ahead has been totally inaccessible for many years due to landslip.

We walked past the sign and continued down the road for about half a mile. Just before a complete road block we turned left along a bridleway to Fallinge. There were fabulous views from this elevated farm road that passed between hay meadows where a gentle breeze was creating waves through tall grasses and wild flowers and every so often there was a glorious ‘stand alone’ tree in full leaf. Away to our left, Fallinge Edge rose up like a rock strewn backdrop that in a couple of months will be purple with heather, whilst alongside pink speckled bell spires of foxglove lined up in stark contrast against dark dry stone walls.

The highlight of this particular walk was when I heard the distinctive sound of a cuckoo coming from nearby which may in fact be this particular bird’s ‘swan song’ before it leaves Derbyshire on its long journey south to Africa.

After passing a stone yard and storage shed we turned right and headed down a track to Burnt Wood where a small quarry lies hidden in the trees. This has been reworked in recent years for stone that is being used in the multi-million pound facelift of Chatsworth. Currently the stable block is being renovated. Evidently, when the original Elizabethan house at Chatsworth was rebuilt in the 17th century on the instruction of the 1st Duke of Devonshire, stone was quarried here for the new build, so permission was granted a while ago for the quarry to be reopened to enable a sympathetic restoration of our ‘golden palace’.

Nellie and I walked to a junction of paths with bridleway and footpath sign no. 427. On our left was what I always refer to as the ‘Alice in Wonderland Bridge’. From a distance it appears to be a normal sized footbridge. However, on closer inspection it is in fact much bigger than you imagine, giving the impression that you might have drunk from the bottle that says ‘drink me’ which in the story made Alice then shrink.

We did not go over the bridge but in fact turned right and headed along a path to pass between high stone pillars that long ago supported tracks of a narrow gauge railway, used to transport stone from the quarry down to the bottom of the valley.

Continuing through woodland we soon took a right fork to walk through bracken and bramble on a narrow pathway that eventually led us to a stile. We then crossed fields on a descent to Beeley, passing through fields where sheep roamed and heifers grazed on the flanks of this glorious wide valley with Derbyshire’s Derwent river flowing in the bottom.

The estate village of Beeley is chocolate box pretty. Many cottages and houses are an architectural delight whilst the gardens are blooming gorgeous. Little wonder that some of them open their gates to the public during the Beeley in Bloom event.

Nellie and I followed Beeley Brook upstream from the pub. At one point my warm little dog cooled down her paws with a paddle and a slurp. We then turned up Moorend and ascended to woodland again where an interesting sign had been erected to notify passers-by about the Leaky Dams. Constructed after flooding in the village a few years ago, multiple dams to resemble the natural behaviour of beavers were built along this watercourse, creating pools in an attempt to alleviate further flooding of the brook.

It was heavenly in the woods, albeit a trifle muggy and sweaty on the steep parts. We were out of direct sunlight, ending our walk with an uphill trek beside spruce, and larch. The stepping stone rocks that I’ve trotted over on many an occasion appear to have been washed out of place. I therefore had to slip and splodge through the stream, whilst Nellie gracefully leapt over. Following a tree-root trip-hazard path to bilberry bank, we eventually emerged out of the top of the wood to my car.

Sally Mosley

FOOTNOTE BY NELLIE: I’ve got a new game! When it’s hot up the allotment and I’m bored, I take myself off to a patch of long grass somewhere and hide out in the shade. Sometimes mum is so captivated by her cabbages or concentrating on her carrots that she doesn’t notice where I’ve sneaked off to. I’ve discovered its then really good fun to play hide and seek and ignore her calls. I can’t keep it up for long though or she might get cross and go the colour of a tomato!! Lots of chuckles. Nellie xx