Day 5 – Peak Wesley Way

Friday 13th September 2024 – Hathersage to Castleon via Hope (8 miles/4 hours)

As we wanted to get to Castleton early to meet up with Susan and Robert, we decide to have breakfast at the Pool Cafe, which was near the chapel in Hathersage. The route was fairly straight forward along the River Derwent, then the River Noe, from the bridge at Shatton.

The breakfast was delicious with plenty of choice and reasonable prices – it is well-attended due to it proximity to the swimming pool, which is 30m long.

This would have been a nice place to have had a swim yesterday, if only I’d included my trunks, although as the attendant said, for the early sessions you have to book your slot online beforehand! Open all year round and heated to 26 degress C, this was a hive of activity for lane swimmers so early in the day.

We set off at 9.30am re-tracing our steps out of Hathersage and then followed along the Derwent Valley and over the bridge at Shatton, meeting only one couple out walking along the way, there were plenty of calm stretches of water along the route.

Crossing the bridge over the River Derwent at Shatton, we saw what looked like an Emu on the way and it gave a nasty peck on Katie’s hand.

After crossing over, we were now following the River Noe and there was a small orchard offering cooking apples “Emneth Early”, we take a few for Susan.

We carried on, now looking over the valley of the River Noe. We arrived at the village of Hope, stopping for a break at Cafe Adventure.

We re-traced our steps to get back on the trail again and onto Castleton, arriving around 2pm via the northern exit road, through the car park and out on to the road going up to Winnats Pass to get to the chapel.

After looking round we left to find Susan and Robert on the bench outside, which was convenient, so we took a stroll back to the car park to have a chat over tea and cake, returning back to the chapel to show them round and then out again to locate the chippy for our supper, fish and chips, with mushy peas of course!

After seeing Susan and Robert off on their way back, as they didn’t want to stay late, we headed back on another side road around the town before heading into the centre and finding the quietest place to be the Bull’s Head, a Robinsons pub on the corner, which gave me a chance for a final pint of Unicorn.

We then set about planning the route for the next day, to our horror discovering that this take us over the peak on the horizon, Mam Tor – so much for advance planning. We settle the route quickly via the directions, the OS map and enter it into komoot, then beat a hasty retreat to get some packing done and an early night ready for exiting early and the final day’s hike, our fixed train departure dictating the timings.