Wildboarclough/Three
Shires Head
Sunday in mid-June. It is
warm and the sun is shining. No time to be sitting indoors.
In a field just under the
Buxton road the fine weather meant making hay - of course!!
It all seemed to be rolling
along nicely!
Further along towards Buxton
the ribs of cut grass made pleasing patterns in the field. Hang-gliders
were being assembled on the slope of Shining Tor in the background,
but I didn't wait to see them launch.
Pulling in just long enough
to fire off a shot, from the open window of the car, of Shutlingsloe
and the start of Wildboarclough, I headed down the valley.
Clough House where, in the
Picnic Area, I parked the car - twice! Because I had forgotten
my boots and had to dash back home again! :o(
Since I last was up the
path by the Cumberland Brook this footbridge has appeared by the
ford.
Over the stile and alongside
the wood, a backward glance at Shutlingsloe across the valley.
Glancing into the stream
I caught the dash of a bird flying fast and low over the rocks.
It perched and was revealed as a Dipper, a common frequenter of
moorland streams. Its major claim to fame is its ability to hunt
for prey under water even in fast flowing streams. I'm not sure
whether its name comes from this dip-taking or its bobbing and
curtsying when it lands on a rock. A bird book describes it thus:
'Pot-bellied form, short cocked tail and rapid whirring flight
suggest giant amphibious wren'.
Above the wood now and on
the edge of the moorland, looking West to Shutlingsloe.
Seriously rough grazing
here with a burgeoning crop of thistles.
The last view into the valley
before the moor proper. The track was once a carriage road and
in places there are still remains of its construction of graded
compacted gravel, but pre-tarmacadam so maybe 200 or so years
old. I'm not sure if the Cumberland name is a reference to the
Duke (known as 'Butcher Cumberland' by the Scots) who stayed in
Macclesfield in 1745 in hot pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie's
army which had quit the town only the day before on their retreat
from Derby.
Coming across the moor,
the view of the edge of the upper valley of the Dane, with the
back of the Roaches ridge beyond.
A little further on, looking
East towards Axe Edge and above the A54 Buxton-Congleton road
running along the edge of the valley at this point.
From the road, looking North-East
to Danebower Hollow at the head of the valley with, beyond the
river, in Derbyshire, Axe Edge Moor on the far skyline.
Reeve-edge quarry (at the
rear) and spoil heaps being slowly re-vegetated.
The square stone chimney
of Danebower
Colliery and below remains of massive masonry presumably associated
with the boiler or steam engine.
Heading down the valley.
Derbyshire on the left, Cheshire on the right and Staffordshire
the wooded hill in-between.
Continued
in Part II
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