Castleton

We packed up bright and early (for us) and set off southwards, skirting Leeds on the south west side to hit the M1. Turning off at Sheffield we drove through the centre to emerge into the Derbyshire Dales. We had booked the Castleton CAMC campsite for three nights so we could do a walk in the countryside up to Mam Tor.
On our way we detoured to Eyam to the south of the site to visit the museum and to have a look at the village. The village famously shut itself off from the outside world in 1665/6 as it was hit by The Great Plague which had travelled to the village in a delivery of cloth from London.
The museum told the story of the self imposed lockdown of the village ( to prevent the spread of the disease to neighbouring villages.) The story was further illustrated by information boards within the various cottage gardens in the village hit by the plague. All very interesting, and having experienced the past 18 months of living in a world where covid is ever present it all seemed so pertinent.
On Monday we walked a circular route from the site to Mam Tor, taking in Lose Hill first, which rises immediately behind the campsite. We then walked along the ridge via Hollins Cross to the the Tor. There were a lot of walking groups out on a fairly overcast day, through it all we had great views of Edale and across the valley to Kinder Scout. We returned via Castleton Village down some pretty slippy and steep paths off the high ground. Castleton was preparing itself for Christmas with trees being decorated outside all the shops which mostly comprised of jewellers specialising in Blue John stone, which is extracted from the surrounding cave systems.
On Tuesday we cycled into Hathersage where we had booked ourselves into the local pharmacy for our Covid booster jabsRead more