Grasscroft Wood Circular (26th October 2024)

Another great turnout of twenty six walkers (and two dogs) met on Carlisle Close, just over the border in Chesterfield. Today’s walk was led by Graham who was standing in for David.

We started out by walking along one of the paths created for the Peak Resort project that runs parallel to the main road. After crossing over the road we found our way through the houses to pick up the riverside path that leads to the often overlooked Unstone viaduct. After marvelling at this structure we started to climb through the woods and along country lanes to reach Hundall. As we continued on, Graham mentioned that we were walking past the site of a former colliery in Hundall. On reaching the “Black Hills” whose name is due to the dark coloured soil in the area, we turned back on ourselves, heading for Grasscroft Wood.

Passing through the woods led us to a very familiar viewing point at the top of the hill. We stopped here for our coffee stop and debated whether or not we could see the crooked spire.

It was a change to walk down the slope to Old Whittington rather than up. After crossing over the road, we continued through fields back to our starting point. We had to change our route slightly as the last field on our route had just been ploughed.

Many thanks to Graham for leading the walk and also to David for providing the route plan.