We parked up about 07:30 ish almost opposite the footpath out of the village. The first few hundred yards was an uphill hike and that certainly blew away any cobwebs. When we levelled out there were lots of small stone walled fields with ruined buildings about. After that we come into what is known marked on the maps as Bonsal Mines (disused), this is a huge area covered in mine workings and capped mine shafts. It looked like an area of giant mole hills. The going was quite easy at this point and we went past this building being modernised and got onto a long straight road. From this road we could see lots of old mine workings again, this time there were some old bits of mechanical machinery probably from the 40's or even older. We had our breakfast in a sheltered area between Two Meres and Blake Mere then headed off towards Upper Town, then back down the track to Bonsal. This was the track that Ike had saw a couple of years ago and its obviously an old miners track leading to the mine fields.
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| The route around Bonsal |
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| The sunrise from my house this morning |
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| Parked up and consulting the map |
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| Up, up and away |
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| Bonsal Church |
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| Lots of old ruined buildings |
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| Another shot of the church |
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| This looks like an old medieval trebuchet launcher. |
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| Geoff |
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| Moooove along now!!! |
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| This looks like a "Rake" following the vein of lead |
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| One of the many capped mine shafts |
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| Breakfast time for the sheep |
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| Crossroads |
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| Another look at the map |
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| Rob |
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| Rob at the watering hole |
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| Ike spotted this, shells fused into the rocks |
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| The long and straight road. |
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| Old machinery |
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| Cattle feeding station |
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| Geoff, Rob & Ike |
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| Minninglow burial site way off in the distance. |
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| Des res just needs a new roof. |
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| Garden Centre at Upper Town |
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| "My" house |
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| Heading back down to Bonsal |
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| Metal detector above Bonsal |
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| Bonsal |
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| Me |
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| Bonsal Market Cross |
See you next week.
