Nottingham Canal and the Hemlock Stone

Back from Scotland and looking forward to this mornings walk. It was Geoff's turn to drive  and there were only 3 of us. Ike was elsewhere looking for another car. We ventured into Nottinghamshire to follow the route of the  Nottingham Canal as far as it goes. We parked just past the Gallows Inn on the outskirts of Ilkeston and followed the footpath up to the canal.
We followed the canal route, under the M1 motorway, past Trowel Garden Centre  and  eventually into a housing estate where the canal route ended. From there we made a detour around Bramcote Hills Park across the A60002 to visit the Hemlock Stone. From there we climbed up to the trig point on Stapleford Hill and eventually got back on track back to the car.  When we stopped for our breakfast Geoff said where's my rucksack? i think i may have left it on the ground somewhere. I looked through the pics on my camera and realised the first pic was less than 100 yards from the car and he wasn't wearing it. WE concluded he must have left it in the boot and thankfully that's where it was.

This weeks route

Entering Nottinghamshire and Geoff with no rucksack

The main track from the footbridge.

Geoff at this door with an electronic locking mechanism. What!!!

Geoff & Rob

View of the disused canal all overgrown

The canal resumes after the M1

A nice pond but the sign says No Fishing

Beyond this bridge is the Trrowel Garden Centre.

Lock gate

Dried up canal bed the other side of the Trowel Garden Centre.

Low headroom here

Geoff

This chap with Geoff guided us through the woods towards the Hemlock Stone

The Hemlock Stone
The Hemlock Stone is an outcrop of New Red Sandstone, deposited more than 200 million years ago in the Triassic Period. It is formed of a layer of Nottingham Castle Sandstone overlying a layer of Lenton Sandstone. Both layers are members of theSherwood Sandstone Group. The Nottingham Castle Sandstone is a medium to coarse-grained sandstone in which the grains are strongly cemented together bybaryte. The Lenton Sandstone is very fine-grained but less well cemented together. As a result the lower part of the stone is more vulnerable to erosion than the upper part, resulting in differential erosion that has given the inselberg its current "waisted" shape.

Geoff & Rob at the Stapleford Hill Trig point

Rob & Geoff with Stapleford Hill in the background.

Geoff in a kissing gate

Rob "borrowing" some privet for his stick insects

 This was a cracking walk where we saw lots of other people about walking dogs, jogging and groups of walkers. Never seen as many folk out early on a Sunday morning.
Geoff was relieved when he saw his rucksack in the boot of his car and a nice journey home.
See you next week.