Sunday 7 June 2015

Priestcliffe & Magpie Mine

I'm back from a week in the lakes, Rob was off medal hunting and Geoff brought his son Stephen so we were up to 4 again.
We went up the A6 via a diversion to Millers Dale car park. From the car park we went along the Monsal trail for a short distance, past the Lime Kilns and to the footpath marked Priestcliffe. It was a steady climb up to the nature reserve where we had a good wander around. We spotted several wild  flowers including the early purple orchids. A peregrine falcon was flying around overhead, a wonderful sight.
We had our breakfast on a bench and watched a shepherd bringing his sheep up the hill. After breakfast we got back to the car and made a detour to Magpie Mine and did we strike lucky there. Just as we arrived a couple of mining engineers appeared and started talking to us and gave us a bit of history about the place and even took us into one of the old winding rooms.

Priestcliffe

Stephen

Ike & Geoff coming up the hill


Early Purple Orchid

Forget me nots












Peregrine

Stephen & Geoff

Ike & Geoff


Ike, Geoff  and Stephen

Shepherd giving his sheep a sermon


Ike & Geoff sharing an orange.




The gate keepers




Lime Kilns


Millers dale Viaduct

Millers Dale Station

Magpie Mine

Brilliant Buttercups on the way to Magpie Mine



Magpie Mine




One of the mining engineers shining a mirror down the shaft approx 600 feet to the bottom






Inside one of the Winding houses







Mountain Pansy's Viola Lutea



Despite the diversion which made us drive quite an extra distance to get to the Millers Dale car park it was well worth it in the end. The icing on the cake is meeting the two mining engineers at Magpie Mine, thanks guys for a great chat. 
See you next week.



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