Rivelin Valley Walk

Our Robs turn to drive today and we set off at 06:50 just because i was 5 minutes late. A friend of mine had told me about the Rivelin Valley and it was close to where we had been last week at Wyming Brook, so we decided to have a look. It took just over an hour to get there and we parked up in the Rivelin Mill car park. We checked the map and saw we could do a small almost circular route for part of the trip. The first encounter was a lovely old packhorse bridge which we crossed and just followed the path. The path then went away from the river uphill but parallel with the river. The track was up and down a bit and eventually came back down to the river level to a footbridge where we crossed over. There are numerous old mill remains, especially the holding ponds and weirs and water ways. This valley must have been a hive of activity in its day with hundreds of people working here. There have been 20 mills on this stretch of river dating from the 1600's.
The valley walk stretches 3 1/2 miles and the river drops over 80 meters in that length. A bit further along the track i stopped to take some pics and when i looked up they had disappeared, so i had to ring Ike to find out which way they had gone.
We got about 2 miles in had our breakfast then headed back. Where we had our breakfast a pair of Mandarin ducks were very close to us and fascinating to watch. We had a really nice chat with some local folks before heading back. When we got to the footbridge we stayed on this side of the river to complete the walk back to the car. This section had more interesting waterfalls and again wished i had brought a tripod with me.

This weeks route

Rob, Ike and Geoff

Rob helping Geoff over a stream

Geoff

Mandarin duck

Ike looking at an odd ruin, looks like some sort of tanks

Geoff

Geoff with a group of talkative locals lol

Geoff

Rob

Ike & Geoff

Another cracking area to visit and a walk just under 4 miles. Nice footpaths apart from a section when Geoff and myself went off piste and had to find our way back to the main track. Heard and saw some nice birds and a couple of dogs having fun in the river. 

See you next week.