Tissington Trail & Biggin

There were only 3 of us this week and the target was a section of the Tissington Trail that none of us had been on before.
The Tissington trail was born out from the NLWR  Buxton to Ashbourne railway line which was opened in 1899 and closed in 1967 by Dr Beeching.
The line was acquired in 1968 by the Peak Park Planning board and in 1971 it opened to walkers and cyclists.
2011 saw the 40th anniversary of the Trail.
We parked in a lay by close to the Rivendale caravan park and a short walk down Liffs Road, under the bridge and up a ramp onto the trail.
The trail is just an old trackbed which is nice easy walking, generally level.

This is where we joined the trail

Lovely surface to walk or cycle

Typical bridge over the trail

 While we were walking along an embankment i noticed my shadow about 100 feet away below us in a field. Nothing special there, but when i was walking a halo surrounded my shadow and it moved with me. I mentioned this to Ike and we were surprised when he couldn't see my halo but he could see a halo around his shadow. The same happened to Geoff, so to recap. Three of us were standing about 5 feet apart, i could only see my halo, Ike and Geoff could only see there's. The pic shows us with the halo around my shadow.

Strange halo surrounded our shadows

Geoff chasing shadows.

After about 2 miles we went off track and across the fields towards the hamlet of Heathcote.

Lush green fields but very wet.

Geoff scaling one of the stiles
From Heathcote we headed off to Biggin where we had our breakfast in the church yard .
St. Thomas's church was completed in 1848 to a design by E.H. Shellard.

Geoff getting some peace and quiet having his brekki.

Ike

St. Thomas's Church

Some excellent gargoyles on the church.

After breakfast we walked through Biggin and out across the fields back towards the Tissington Trail.

Lovely little cottage with the Church behind.

Biggin Hall is a grade 11 listed building from c1642

The Waterloo Inn

The left gatepost was about 3 feet wide.

Lots of cows and calves about, thankfully no bulls.

Just see Biggin church behind the moocoos.

Typical stretch of track showing the gentle curve all the way around to the right.

This is the view from the ramp leading to the trail from under the bridge.

Back to the car and off home.

There was only 3 of us this week and somehow we got back to the car early and walked just over 6 miles, so does that mean the missing person (my brother Rob) is the one that slows us down each week.
Hopefully all 4 next week will be back on the trail.
Cheers