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Limestone Way: quirky churches and cave houses

Enough theological reflection - let's go for a walk!


Toby joined me for the two walks between Mayfield and Thorpe, via Mapleton and Ashbourne. My old phone finally died, so I was enjoying the capabilities of my new one, including a much better camera and the ability to plot routes on the OS Maps app.

Walk One

It was the first day of Toby's summer holidays, so I'd promised him a milkshake en route. We parked in Mayfield, went past the primary school, and climbed the hill to rejoin the Limestone Way where I'd left it last time. Very soon we came across Lordspiece Farm, which had what looked like a little shed on wheels outside. The sign said "Honesty Tuck Shop". One part of it was a freezer stacked full of ice cream! It was very tempting, but we'd hardly walked any distance, and we had those plans for milkshakes. We reluctantly closed the door and moved on. The farm dog had a bark much bigger than its body - it was a tiny thing!


We continued across some fields and reached the A52. Fortunately we only had a short distance on the verge.

 

Carefully crossing the busy road, we followed a track through a field of very large cows. They ignored us, though. We enjoyed the view down into the valley. The track made for nice easy walking all the way to Woodhouses Farm, where we left the Limestone Way again.



Cutting back on ourselves slightly, we took the shortest route across a field of gingernut-coloured cattle, then yomped down a long grassy hill. Another track brought us out onto the road past Okeover Hall.



 

We crossed the Dove at Okeover Bridge and arrived in the village of Mapleton. It's a village with a spelling crisis; the church insisted it was St Mary's Mappleton. It was a great little church though. The Ashbourne Churches website describes it as "endearingly idiosyncratic" which is just about right. Toby and I felt like we were on pilgrimage again, as we explored the balcony, signed the visitors book, and ate lunch on a bench in the churchyard.



By this point it felt like we'd been walking a while. I'd assured Toby the loop was no longer than 7 miles. Were we going slower than usual? I hadn't downloaded the OS Map app yet, so there was no way to tell. We continued on, over Callow Top and through the Tissington Trail tunnel into Ashbourne.


Here we purchased the promised milkshakes from The Olde Sweet Shoppe. I had a Maltesers one and Toby had strawberry Millions. They gave us a sugar boost for the last stretch along the A52 to Hanging Bridge.

There was one more hill into Mayfield. Halfway up we spotted some cave houses built into a rock face - one which was lived in and one which had fallen down a long time ago. Mayfield is certainly not short of surprises!


 

The walk was long, though - Google Maps clocked it at 8.5 miles. Sorry, Toby.


Mayfield - Mapleton 13.6 km / 8.5 miles

22 July 2024


Walk Two

A few weeks later, Toby and I returned to Mapleton (or Mappleton). This time I'd plotted the route on the OS Maps app. It was very helpful, as Thorpe is just off the edge of the Derby map, and the walk actually went on to both sides of the White Peak sheet. It would have been a right pain to navigate on paper. I do like proper maps, but having to refold something the size of a bedsheet in the middle of a walk is not fun.

accidentally herding sheep

So, we followed the fancy new technology up the road past Okeover Hall, retracing our steps from last time, then through a farm with a lot of small brown birds. Quail? we guessed, but the only thing we were sure of was that they weren't chickens.


A dinky little loop near Blore took us back onto the Limestone Way at Woodhouses Farm. It was well signposted with a Peak & Northern Footpaths sign.



The route was easy to follow past Coldwall Farm and down to Coldwall Bridge - another Dove crossing. It was apparently built when there were plans for this to become a much bigger road. That never happened, and today it's just a track. Although we did get to the top just in time to open the gate for a car coming through.



We stopped on the village green at Thorpe for an early lunch and a swing. Just around the corner was St Leonard's, so we poked our heads in for a look. It had an unusual little window at the tower end.




Continuing onwards, we had grand views of Thorpe Cloud and Dovedale to our right. Over there, we assumed, were dozens of cars and hundreds of people milling around the stepping stones. Over here, we had the place to ourselves.



I wanted to cross St Mary's Bridge for the sake of completeness; it was the final crossing of the Dove before Dovedale. Apart from one which I needed to go back to, I would then have crossed every bridge over the Dove between here and the Trent. Sadly the bridge was damaged and looked rather neglected.



We crossed it anyway, but then stayed on the eastern side of the river to walk back to Mapleton. I'd worried that this last section might be a slog across boring fields. Actually it went through pleasantly shady woods with the river burbling alongside us - very nice.


We passed Coldwall Bridge again and continued to follow the river all the way back to Mapleton. There were a few more people around on this stretch. Toby and I have now done quite a bit of the River Dove together, since we walked from Dovedale up to Hartington as the first part of our Peak Pilgrimage (which I haven't blogged about). 

Mapleton church and pub

Getting even more tech-savvy, I imported our route from OS Maps to Google Maps rather than plotting it manually, which is why the line is more wiggly than usual!


Mapleton-Thorpe 12.5 km / 7.8 miles

2 August 2024

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