Fourteen walkers met at Shillito Wood car park on a pleasantly warm and bright Thursday evening. Richard and Phoebe were a.re walk leaders.
Our first stop was the Stone Cross which was only a short distance from the car park. Joe told us about the history of the cross and mentioned that it was much older that he had first thought. It is an example of a Wayside cross, one of several types of Christian cross erected during the medieval period, mostly from the 9th to 15th centuries AD. We then walked along a country lane taking us to Ramsley reservoir which gets a mention on the Bird Guides bird watching site After crossing the Baslow Road we were on open moors on a good track that leads all the way to Barbrook reservoir. Our route diverted off the path so that we could visit two bronze age stone circles and a burial mound.
After re-joining the main path we stopped for a break on the bridge over the Bar brook which gave us views back towards “little Barbrook”, a small body of water that is popular with wild swimmers and picknickers. During our break we were aware of a small herd of cows gradually creeping towards us. Past experience of these cows was that they were placid but when two of them decided that the bridge had some particularly tasty clumps of grass we decided to move on.
Soon we were crossing the Baslow road once again and heading downhill through Greave’s Piece which provided a nice contrast to the moorland. After crossing Carr Road we picked up a path that would lead us all the way back to Shillito Wood.
Many thanks to Richard and Phoebe. it was their first lead for the group and was a great success. Thanks also to Joe for telling us about the stone circles and companion stones in the area.
