Alport Castles 25.01.2016

[Requiem]

.. The Alport Valley is a stunning place – it has a small farming community, is a primary route for walkers to access Bleaklow from Fairholmes and the Upper Derwent Valley and is quite intensely managed for Grouse shooting, despite there being little real shooting being done over the last few years.
Its a place where Peregrine Falcons have succesfully reared young in a couple of places .. and if you are lucky male Hen Harriers can be seen ghosting down to the lower areas of the Valley to seek out prey. Harriers are the bane of my life – I see them, tell my older, more expert compatriots and almost every time have to ignore scornful glances as if yet again they disbelieve either their existence or my sighting of them

In the past its been a place of tragedy. Less than forty years ago, young lives were lost when a group of scouts died of hypothermia less than a few miles from safety as they descended from Bleaklow in awful winter conditions encountered on the Four Inns Walk. I often sit at my wall overlooking the iconic Tower and try and imagine how desperate it must have been for these men, hardly out of childhood – the best of young people with aspirations, good outlooks and solid backgrounds who died in a place that up there you realise is nowhere near as tamed, or civilised as we all may think. ..


Blog here https://roypollard.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/alport-castles-ranger-patrol/  

[Cnicht]

Must go there one day, nice photos

[adalard]

Great blog, Requiem - really like the design/layout. 


And really enjoyed the TR too. One of my favourite parts of the Peak District. I didn't know about the tragic incident on the Four Inns Walk though, very sad.