Category: Hikes (Page 5 of 7)

Wednesday 11th September 2024 – Great Longstone to Baslow via Calver (6 miles/3 hours)

Fortunately, our route was a little easier today than the last two days.

It rained from the start however, means we set off in rain gear and sheltered a while in the Grade 1 listed St Giles’ Church.

We made our way out of the village and onto the trail up into the hills for the first hour, getting very wet feet in the process, it had cleared up by 11 ish.

We met only one or two people on the whole route today, as we went uphill quite steeply in places, around a disused quarry and down the side of it.

Coming down around Calver Peak, what looked like a kestrel flew into trees on the way down to the village, on the way passing what was originally a Primitive Methodist chapel. The Methodist church was founded after Wesley’s death, and split into three branches, Primitive, Wesleyan and United – some places had one of each chapel in them, and buildings bearing the names remain.

We stopped in Calver for lunch – soup with a wholemeal bap and a pot of tea at the Eating House.

It started raining again whilst we were there, so we waited until it had stopped then set off along the River Derwent into Baslow.

We crossed the bridge over the river to reach the chapel at Baslow for about 4pm, after dropping into St Anne’s church along the way.

We went to the nearby Post Office/Spar corner shop just up from the chapel on to get ingredients for our evening meal of baked potatoes, beans, cheese and a stir fry of runner beans and carrots, there being a cooker in the kitchen at this chapel – it was the most well-equipped in that respect – most importantly, we were able to get our wet shoes dry.

The simple meal actually tasted really good and was just what we wanted after earlier nipping round all possible pubs/eating places in Baslow and concluding that they were all a bit fussy or just plain complicated and more for foodies, for example, the Devonshire.

We went to the Prince of Wales pub down the road and a pint of Bakewell bitter was just the tonic.

We noticed that a meal here was sent back for being for being too salty: clearly the pubs/restaurants take their reputations seriously and indeed, the guidebook mentions the top class eateries available here, if you want that thing.