Minninglow & Royston Grange

Just 3 of us again this week and my turn to drive. Set off at the usual 06:00 and parked up in Minninglow car park at about 06:35. When we set off from Belper it was wall to wall blue skies and arriving at Minninglow there was nothing but grey skies and mist. In fact i just had my shorts on but changed into trousers in the car park. We just took the path out of the car park, got onto the route of the old railway track and continued around until we got to the remains of the old loading crane. On the way around we couldn't even see Minninglow because of the mist but thankfully the sun burnt it off and it cleared when we were going up the hill.We got up to the circle of outer trees and entered through the gate into the burial area. Its very impressive inside the circle of trees, strangely quiet and serene. We stayed there for a while then walked out through the opposite gate and headed down to the tunnel under the embankment which lead us to Roystone Grange which was originally a monastic sheep farm. The track passes through the farm and we had our breakfast on a level section and apparently an old scull was found there during excavations many years ago.From there it was back on track and headed back to the car park.

This weeks route around Minninglow

Couldn't see Minninglow for the mist

Minninglow looming out of the mist.

Geoff

Minninglow Grange

Remains of old crane

Embankment with lime kiln in the background

Minninglow Neolithic chambered tomb and two Bronze Age bowl barrows.

Geoff

Ike & Geoff on the hill

Geoff

Minninglow Hill. The crown of gaunt beech trees hides an ancient barrow, Minninglow. This was excavated in 1851 revealing a very large megalithic chamber and several imperfect cists (stone coffins). One, however, was intact and with its capstone in place.

Ike looking at some of the burial chambers

A sit down and quick drink

This is called Gallows Lane

Getting over the wall in style

Roystone Grange

Apparently the used to store explosives in this building.

My selfie

The old engine house

Roystone Grange

Roystone Grange was a monastic sheep farm. From the 12th century to the 14th centuries flocks of sheep grazed the surrounding pastures, and their wool was exported to Europe, to Italy and beyond.

Last glimpse of Minninglow

Just over 3 1/2 miles with a bit of ascent and decent but a lovely morning in the end . The only annoying thing for me was the Sky Larks, i must have heard 20 of them throughout the walk but never saw one. Saw a couple of other birds but they were really to far away to photograph properly, so sub standard bird pics.

See you next week