Another walk with beefy and Squeaky this time starting from the Dovestones Car Park. It was sunny and quite hot.
These rocks are locally known as Indian's Head because it looks like a face with a native American headdress
On the way up Chew Road
The walk up was spoiled by this couple with loud voices, gabbing constantly. We stopped a few times to let them get ahead only to catch them up again because they kept stopping. We started walking faster to get out of earshot of them. We should have done this straight away in hindsight.
Looking back down Chew Road
We were getting very hot with walking up here fast and we were grateful for the wind that was cooling us down a little.
Chew Reservoir
Ashway Stone footpath sign
We walked through very dry moorland for a while. We both commented we wouldn't want to navigate in mist up here because it was featureless to start.
Charnel Clough
Dovestone reservoir now in view
The lovely path along the edge of Dove Stone Moss
The Dove Stone
This is near Charnel Holes and I took the shot not realising it was the Dove Stone. I thought it would have been near Great Dove Stone Rocks which is further along the edge. When I was back at home I googled The Dove Stone and this was it.
Fantastic rock formations
Terrain like this reminds me of Northumberland for instance the Simonside Hills.
Rocks above Chew Hills
Lunch time rocks
We sat here for some lunch, not always out of the wind. In hindsight we should have sat in the shade because there was no let up from the sun.
More rocks along the edge
Cairn on Fox Stone
We'd passed Bramley's Cot, a ruined hut of some sort. I took a photo but it wasn't very good. I was looking all over for the Dove Stone not realising I'd already seen it.
Yeoman Hey Reservoir
More rock formations
I think these are Dean Rocks.
We crossed a stream and the path became a bit of a scramble up the other side. A bit of moorland walking followed and we realised the path was descending. We climbed away from this path to another one higher up that passed the Ashway Stone.
Ashway Stone
Memorial Cross
A local MP James Platt had been shot and killed here in a grouse shooting accident in 1857.
We descended after the cross and veered right to Raven Stones. The path became narrow and got very close to the edge of a big drop so I called it the "Path of Death". I wasn't enjoying this bit so after about 10 minutes we retraced our steps and descended to Dovestone Reservoir on the path to the left of Ashway Rocks. Beefy had planned for us to descend to Greenfield Reservoir but in the end we were both glad we'd turned back because the walk was a bit shorter.
Dovestone reservoir
Walking along the reservoir path
We were grateful for the shade here. It was really busy at the reservoir, people all over, some of them must not have heard of Covid and the need to keep 2m away from other people.
Last shot at Dovestone reservoir
We sat in the shade under the trees in the Memorial Garden to have a brew and some food. We were feeling a bit baked by the sun and we'd forgotten to bring sunscreen. We had a grand day out, what a lovely walk. The route was Dovestone Reservoir Car Park - Chew Road - Chew Reservoir - Charnel Clough - Bramley's Cot - Cairn on Fox Stone - Ashway Stone - Little Flat - Raven Stones - Little Flat - Dovestone Reservoir - car park. 8.25 miles and 320m ascent.
I found this wonderful website created by Geoff, a Peak District Ranger (sadly no longer with us).
https://www.doveheritage.com/walking/I really enjoyed reading all about the history of the area and there are ideas for other walks on there too