Fairholmes - Alport Castles - Bleaklow

A+ day out bank holiday Sunday. Joined the Ramblers group for a hike in the Peak District.

If you're ever thinking about walking in this area: come down the ridge from Alport Castles to do the off-track walk right up the Alport River valley. You will have to hop across the Alport River multiple times to improvise a route up the valley. This route goes right along the river's edge until you clamber halfway up the gorge at Miry Clough. This clamber takes you to a beaten path that continues on to a spot called Grains In The Water (marked on the Ordnance Survey map). You cut across the peat bogs from Grains in the Water to the Bleaklow Stones before walking back to Fairholmes along the top of the ridge.

The twisty improvised path up the river valley is the fun part of the route. This route opens up a stunning range of landscapes: coniferous forests, rocky river beds, farmland and meadows along the river valley, bracken covered scrub land. The ever changing landscape on the way out... followed by the endless vastness of the peat bogs on the return leg...that's what made this walk.

It is not at all obvious from either the Ordnance Survey map or from the guidebooks that this route is on. Fortunately the Ramblers had done this route before. This is also one of the quietest parts of the peak district. On a gorgeous bank holiday Sunday we had the place entirely to ourselves.