WALKS WITH NELLIE ~ GARDOM’S EDGE ~ BY SALLY MOSLEY

Parts of this fascinating expedition took Nellie and I on a walk through woodland in the throes of being decorated for autumn in shades ranging from green to amber. In something of a surprise, I actually got mud on my boots for the first time in months!

We started by parking at Chatsworth before heading across the deer park where I heard occasional guttural roars from majestic stags, reminding me that the rutting season is about to start. I watched from a safe distance as one particularly impressive stag pawed at the ground before head-butting an opponent in a clash of powerful, pointed antlers. Both animals were limbering up like testosterone fuelled boxers preparing for their annual custom of fighting to determine dominancy over the herd.

We exited the park through the now famous Cannon Kissing Gate and walked into Baslow with its chocolate box pretty houses, before walking up Eaton Hill and taking a right at the triangle to head up the old coach road to Sheffield.

In a change to my usual long slog up to Baslow Edge, Nellie and I turned right before the last house to go along a footpath that I have never trodden before. Following the O.S. map, Nellie and I chose the middle dotted green line to Raddowhole Plantation that led us across a wooded slope. Every once in a while some little spring oozed out of the hillside to create a boggy bit interspersed with fallen branches and trip hazard stones, all of which I had to hop and skip over. It was a real adventure. At one point there was a large exposed treeless area down to our side where a patch of woodland has been felled.

We eventually emerged from the trees at a gate then turned right and walked down a grassy field to cross a substantial footbridge over Bar Brook. After a short stretch of pavement potter beside the A621 we then had to cross over the road to a stile just beyond the toll cottage. Prior to this turnpike road being laid around 1803, carts, carriages, packhorses and pedestrians would have had to make their way between Sheffield and Baslow over the old coach road mentioned earlier.

Gardom’s Edge was up to our left as Nellie and I ambled along a rock strewn path through bracken, passing oak trees where I had to crunch over a carpet of acorns like little ball bearings beneath my boots. Silver birch were shedding their leaves that lay scattered like arboreal confetti whilst dotted and spotted here and there were enchanting, magical fungi that had emerged from damp mossy ground, rotting tree stump or fallen bough.

Arriving at a spectacular vantage point I was rewarded with panoramic views reaching far away to the west of the county.

On reaching flatter ground near to rock formations known as the Three Men I decided to stay on the right of way footpath that would lead us to the A619 below the Robin Hood Inn. In the distance on Birchen Edge I could just make out Nelson’s Monument erected in 1810 some five years after the Battle of Trafalgar. Standing 3 metres tall and topped with a 30cm ball, the column of gritstone was positioned 1,000 feet above sea level and close to three natural rock formations known as the Three Ships, each being engraved with the name of a flagship vessel in Nelson’s fleet.

On arriving at the road we carefully crossed to a fingerpost sign just a few yards uphill then descended steep steps to a substantial new footbridge installed after the last one got washed away in floods a while back.

Choosing not to head along Dobb Edge, instead we followed a lovely track beneath it which led us above the Saw Mill then over a couple of high wall stiles to re-enter Chatsworth’s deer park where we headed downhill past Jubilee Rock, carved in respect to Queen Victoria.

From here I looked across to see the distant E R plantation laid out to commemorate a jubilee celebration of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, but now serving more as a lasting memorial to her memory.

Once more we passed the herd of red deer at a respectful distance to return to my car.

Sally Mosley

FOOTNOTE BY NELLIE: I’ve had a quiet couple of weeks with nothing much to report to be honest, although I did have one brief exciting moment when a complete stranger knew my name and made a fuss of me. She told me that I’m famous. When I got home and googled Nellie Mosley, my walks with mum actually came top of the list. However, if you type in famous dogs I’m nowhere to be seen. Lassie, Toto and Rin Tin Tin have world-wide fame whilst I’m just your local Peak Advertiser pooch. I bet you are putting my name in Google now?! Big smiles, Nellie xx