Natural History

A Narrow Passage

13th June 2019 by

Suddenly the open dale is left behind and smooth limestone cliffs close in on both sides. At its narrowest point, this passage is no more than ten metres broad. It is almost claustrophobic. No water ever flows here these days, not even after the heaviest rainfall. Take a closer look at those rock faces either side of you; surely, they must have been sculpted by a flow of water on a biblical scale.

It is quiet here today – maybe all you can hear are the songs of redstarts and willow warblers in the thorn trees above? Yet all about us is clear evidence of what must have been a thunderous process; to the left of the path there is an overhang of rock, this is where an ancient river has undercut into the rock-face and, looking up, do you think that there was once a complete roof above? If so, at some point it must have collapsed, the debris washed away in the powerful torrent.

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Base of Parkhouse Hill

13th June 2019 by

Looking back at the hill, you’ll see why I recommended taking that detour to the right; the well-worn way coming down is so steep it requires rock climbing skills. And what a dramatically sudden end to those slopes which are indeed like the plates on the back of a gigantic stegosaurus.

From our viewpoint on the flat valley floor, with a little imagination, it feels like we could be standing on a sea bed, looking up at a coral reef. Well, around 350 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period that would have been precisely where we were. During this period much of Britain was covered by warm, tropical seas as the part of the Earth’s crust that we now know as Europe was actually located very near to the Equator.

The term for these limestone hills is reef knolls. They were formed on the ancient sea bed as layers of tiny dead sea creatures, such as early molluscs and sponges, built up over millions of years to form limestone mounds.

Crest of ridge, Hitter Hil

13th June 2019 by

As you round the crest of the grassy ridge, the sleeping dragon comes into view for the first time. From this distance and angle do those two green hills remind you of a dragon?

The smaller one to the left is Parkhouse Hill and the larger one to the right is Chrome Hill. Nothing to do with rare metals, Chrome is pronounced as in broom and comes from an Old English word meaning bent, or twisted. Parkhouse has also been known as Little Chrome.

It is more than their shape which makes them so impressive, it is as much the setting; these two jagged beasts in the otherwise open valley of the famous River Dove, full of graceful curves. So how on earth did these dramatic contrasts come into being? Keep walking to find out!

Here Be Dragons

13th June 2019 by

A dramatic short walk in the Peak District National Park

Slumbering at the head of the peaceful Dove Valley, on the Derbyshire / Staffordshire border, lies a pair of legendary hills with a surprisingly colourful past.

Dovedale is one of the most famous and iconic tourist stops in the Peak District. Just a little higher up the course of its river, however, is a quite remarkable landscape; one that is, strangely, little visited.

Perhaps there is an instinctive fear of a feature known among walkers as the Dragon’s Back.

This trail sets off fearlessly along the spine of the monster, in an attempt to unpick the mystery of its origins…

Starting at The Quiet Woman, Earl Sterndale, walk across the front of the pub, following the public footpath signs, passing behind a house and garden, through a couple of small wooden gates, to emerge into a large open field. The path takes a diagonal to the crest of the ridge on Hitter Hill.

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Stepping Stones

13th June 2019 by

This is one of the most popular places in the Peak District National Park with over a million visitors a year. The series of square-cut stones which cross the river here are not particularly ancient; they were put in around 1890 when donkeys were stationed here for hire to take you further into the dale.

Stepping Stones © Speedygroundhog via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The appetite for sublime landscapes, encouraged by writers like William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Alfred Lord Tennyson and the paintings of JMW Turner, made the dramatic limestone features of places like Dovedale a “must-see” on the Victorian tourist’s wish-list. Writing to a friend, Byron asked: “Was you ever in Dovedale? I assure you there are things in Derbyshire as noble as in Greece or Switzerland”. The coming of the railway to Ashbourne in 1852 and the Ashbourne-Buxton line (now the Tissington Trail) in 1899 made Dovedale even more accessible.

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Bridge below Thorpe Cloud

13th June 2019 by

Dovedale and Thorpe Cloud © Rob Williams via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The twin sentinels of Thorpe Cloud towering away to your right and Bunster Hill to your left guard the entrance to Dovedale. Over 50 miles from the nearest stretch of coastline you may be surprised to learn that these hills were once coral reefs! They are known as reef knolls and were formed around 350 million years ago from the compressed remains of coral reefs on the edge of a warm, tropical sea, which created the limestone plateau of the White Peak.

Natural History

A dramatic short walk in the Peak District National Park

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