Alport Castles

I've been wanting to go back and visit Alport Castles for a while now and last week we agreed to go for it if the weather was OK. It was my turn to drive and because its a bit further away we left our Robs just after 05:30. Straight up the A6 with a little detour into Bakewell, then back on track to the Snake Pass, we parked close to Hayridge Farm and crossed the road to the footpath. The first section was pretty straight forward up through some fields and until we got onto a farm track. The track levelled out and started to go downhill towards Alport Castles Farm, we could see the "Tower" up on the hillside 500 feet above us. It didn't look far but it was all uphill. With several stops on the way we eventually got there and the views are staggering. When we got closer to the Castles a couple of fell runners came past us, they must be mad. Looking down onto the valley floor 500 feet below us we could see Alport Castles Farm and the river Alport. We found a bird hide at the top of the Castles and that's where we had our breakfast sheltering from the wind.

This weeks route to Alport Castles

Geoff, Ike, Rob & Me with the tip of the "Tower" between us.

We had decent weather, not cold but we got a sweat on climbing up the hill. Going up it was largely cloudy but coming down the sun poked through a few times and it was very warm. Just a smidgen over 5 miles over reasonable terrain this was a pretty good work out for a Sunday morning, not bad for a combined age of 290

See you next week.