Lea Wood Heritage Trail

A friend of mine told me about this walk and we have been over part of it in the past but it has been recently improved and added to so we thought we would have a look.  The sun rise this morning was 07 :12 so we had a later start and set off at 06:30. A short drive up the A6 and through Holloway where we parked outside the road leading to Smedley Mill. It was just breaking light for a short walk down the road and onto the footpath between a couple of houses. This footpath goes uphill and eventually leads down to the old Aqueduct Cottage on the Cromford Canal. We then just followed the paths marked out on the Lea Wood Heritage Trail pamphlet. When we got back to the Aqueduct Cottage we decided to make a detour to the High Peak Junction and then back to the car via the road.

The Lea Wood Heritage Trail

Wharf Cottage

Ike being nosey!!

Looks like they re painting the bridge

Lea wood Aqueduct and pump house

Aqueduct Cottage

Cromford Canal with the Nightingale Arm to the right

This doesn't look much but it was a charcoal burning platform where 13th century artifacts have been found.

This is thought to be the remains of an 18th century water trough

Geoff sitting on an old stone seat 

Memorial stone close to the stone seat 

One of the Q pits on the trail

Geoff looking into the Q pit

Beautiful beach trees

Lots of bird boxes and bat boxes right through the woods

Elder berries

This is Florence's seat where we had our breakfast.

Florence's seat

Florence's seat

Geoff

Rob & Ike, which way now?

Geoff on another stone seat on the zig zag path

Look at how thick the bark was on this tree

Off into the woods again

Fantastic group of trees

Rob, Ike & Geoff

Small structure up from the Aqueduct Cottage

Nightingale Arm of the Cromford Canal

Smoke from the Lea Wood Pump House

Lea Wood Pump House

Little Grebe

Canoeist disturbing the local ducks

Bikers at High Peak Junction

River Derwent

Old buildings beside the Smedley Mill

Part of the old Smedley Mill complex.

This was a short walk through some great historic woods where Florence Nightingale was known to walk. Very nice in early autumn.
See you next week.