Castleton Bank Holiday Weekend (as is the tradition)

5 nights at Castleton as we have for many years at August Bank Holiday, to coincide with the beer festival at Hope and occasionally the Hope Country Show. This outing will end in the 95th night out in the van this year so far, an average of about 3 nights per week; not too shabby that after last years restrictions.

Arrived on the Wednesday afternoon (the benefit of not working) to sunshine albeit we picked a pitch with shade from an annoying tree (pitch #32), so some shuffling required to spend the afternoon sitting in the sun either side

of the offending greenery. A leisurely walk into Castleton followed where the pubs have clearly been affected by Covid and the resulting staff shortages. The beer garden seating had been removed as the landlady at the Bulls Head said they were struggling to cover. Shame, as it was always guaranteed to get a sunny spot there.

Thursday (after being rudely disturbed at 6:30 am by 2 vans noisily packing up, why so inconsiderate) saw us do a favourite walk, 14 mile circular up Cavedale, along Rushup Edge, the long trek over the slabbed peat bogs (These flagstones always impress me, with the effort to lay them in such a remote place, I’d assume using a helicopter to bring them in more modern times. The stone flags came from cotton mills in the Lancashire towns of Colne, Burnley and Blackburn that had been recently demolished) to Brown Knoll (569 m above sea level) then down Jacobs Ladder. In the 18th century Jacob Marshall farmed the land at Edale Head, at the top of what became known as Jacob's

Ladder. The path is marked as footpath 35 and the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, carried out by about 500 walkers in 1932, passed the top of Jacob's Ladder on the way from Kinder Downfall back to Hayfield, where they began the walk. Without this, none of the fabulous walks available to us to enjoy would have been possible.

This being a section of the Edale Skyline walk it was lovely to see all the purple heather across the Edale valley on the edges of Kinder, as well as earlier close up encounter at Brown Knoll. We returned to Castleton via Hollins Cross. Daisy dog particularly loved the peat bogs and was ditched, she had fun chasing ducks in the stream and careering over the waterfall. Back in Castleton we spotted “our” bench was free outside the Cheshire Cheese, so we caught the last bit of sun and I enjoyed a couple of pints of Abbeydale Breweries “Deception”. Nice. Came back to cook our evening meal using our

shiny new Tepanyaki grill. Still waiting for sausages to cook an hour later, that went well then. Time for a new Cadac.

Friday was a leisurely day with a stroll into Hathersage for coffee and cake with a cheating train journey back into Hope for our usual call at the Old Hall as the usual Bank Holiday beer festival was on. Saturday was Derby day, home match v Forest which we came back for to return later. Round trip for a 1-1 draw, good game though so very pleased I was able to get back and spend some time with Tom. The day was grounded with some sad news of the loss of another Uncle x

Sunday felt positively Autumnnal, with a chill in the air and leaves falling on the paths of our chosen walk skirting Win Hill, round the southern edge of Ladybower, climbing back up Win Hill above Thornhill and down into Hope, for another pub stop. Wimped out and sat inside again in our favourite winter

seats by the soon to be lit fire.

Back home Bank Holiday Monday to get our final preparations done for our next and longer trip, an unspecified period exploring France ???? More on that later.

Reflections from the weekend are that we both said we’d probably give it a miss next time as the site was a bit noisy. We left the site less than half full no doubt folk heading back to work, and a little regretful we weren’t just arriving now we have the luxury of choice. I have heard people saying similar, can understand that now. That said we both enjoyed it, nice to be back in a place we could easily call home.