Lead Mining and the Transparent Stream

About trip

Today, when you descend the winding lane into this beautiful limestone dale, you’re confronted by ash trees growing beneath tiered limestone crags, tumbling screes, multi pastel-coloured grasslands swaying in the breeze and that same crystal clear stream, still full of darting trout. Invasion of the Lead Miners. Yet it was not always so. In the 18th and 19th centuries lead miners came here and stripped the valley of its trees. They drilled shafts and adits into the white rock, built pump houses, elaborate aqueducts, waterwheels and tramways; and when the old schemes failed to realise profits they came up with new, even bigger ones. Inevitably nobody made any real money, and by 1870 the price of lead had slumped from overseas competition and the pistons stopped. On this walk you will see the fading remnants of this past, juxtaposed with the natural world that is gradually reclaiming the land. In reality it’s Natural England, who are managing the grasslands and woods as part of the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve. Your route starts on a narrow winding lane from Over Haddon to a clapper bridge by Lathkill Lodge. A lush tangle of semi-aquatic plants surround the river and the valley sides are thick with ash and sycamore. In spring you’re likely to see nesting moorhens and mallards. In the midst of the trees are some mossy pillars, the remains of an aqueduct built to supply a head of water for the nearby Mandale Mine. The path leaves the woods and the character of the dale changes again. Here sparse ash trees grow out of the limestone screes, where herb Robert adds splashes of pink. Disapperaring River: In the dry periods of summer the river may have disappeared completely beneath its permeable bed of limestone. The sun-dried soils on the southern slopes are too thin to support the humus-loving plants of the valley bottom. Instead, here you’ll see the pretty early purple orchid, cowslips with their yellowy primrose-like flowers and clumps of the yellow-flowered rock rose. After climbing out of Cales Dale the walk traverses the high fields of the White Peak plateau. If you haven’t already seen them, look out for Jacob’s ladder, a 3ft (1m) tall, increasingly rare plant with clusters of bell-like purple-blue flowers. By the time you have crossed the little clapper bridge by Lathkill Lodge and climbed back up that winding lane to the car park, you’ll have experienced one of Derbyshire’s finest dales While you're there: Nearby Haddon Hall, home of the Dukes of Rutland, is well worth a visit. This 14th-century country house is as impressive as Chatsworth in its own way, with beautifully laid out gardens surrounding a Gothic-style main building. See the fine medieval Banqueting Hall, and the Long Gallery, with its Renaissance panelling. There’s a Rex Whistler (1905–1944) painting depicting the 9th Duke and his son. Where to eat and drink: The Lathkil Hotel, at the far eastern end of Over Haddon, enjoys one of the best settings of any pub in the Peaks, with breathtaking views across the dale to Youlgreave and the White Peak. Restaurant and bar meals are served daily, lunchtime and evening, and the pub has won several awards for its selection of real ales. Under-14s are not allowed in the main bar. Directions: Turn right out of the car park, and descend the narrow tarmac lane, which winds down into Lathkill Dale. 2 Just before reaching Lathkill Lodge and the river, turn right along a concessionary track that runs parallel to the north bank. The path passes several caves and a mineshaft as it weaves its way through woodland and thick vegetation. South of Haddon Grove the trees thin out to reveal the fine limestone crags and screes of the upper dale. The path now becomes rougher as it traverses an area of screes. 3 At a junction of routes go over the footbridge and follow a little path sneaking into Cales Dale. Take the left fork down to a stile at the valley bottom. You now join the Limestone Way long distance route on a very steep stepped path climbing eastwards out of the dale and on to the high pastures of Calling Low. 4 The path heads east of southeast across the fields then, just before Calling Low farm, diverts left (waymarked) through several small wooded enclosures. The path swings right beyond the farm, then half left across a cow-pocked field to its top left-hand corner and some woods. 5 Over steps in the wall the path cuts a corner through the woods before continuing through more fields to reach a tarmac lane, where you turn left. 6 After about 500yds (457m), follow a signposted footpath that begins at a stile in a dry-stone wall on the left. This heads north-east across fields to a huge farming complex, Meadow Place Grange. Waymarks show the way across the cobbled courtyard, where the path continues between two stable blocks into another field. 7 After heading north across the field to the brow of Lathkill Dale, turn right through a gate on to a zig-zag track descending to the river. Cross the old clapper bridge to Lathkill Lodge and follow the outward route, a tarmac lane, back to the car park. Extending the Walk You can see the lower part of Lathkill Dale by leaving the main route at Point A and descending through Youlgreave village to Alport, from where a riverside path takes you all the way back to the start, at the bottom of the hill near Over Haddon.