Walk #17 Dove Dale, Staffordshire

Walk 4 out of 100

Walk #17 - Dove Dale
Staffordshire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪

Suggested Time - 3h 30m

Actual Time Taken - 2h 47m

Distance in book - 8.3km

Map my walk Distance - 8.19km

Start of walk, just past car park

In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, Mr Twister and I crossed off two of the multiple walks in and around the Peak District over a couple of days. Dove Dale was the choice for the first of the two, Twister already knew the area fairly well and we expected a fairly straight forward walk from the map. The car park for Dove Dale was easy to find, it cost £2.50, and there were good facilities there too.

BUSY BUSY BUSY The Stepping Stones

The first piece of advice I can give for this place, if you don't like kids, don't go in the school holidays on a sunny day! The weather was gorgeous and being the Easter holidays it was heaving with people. Thankfully, once we got away from the stepping stones and Thorpe Cloud the paths got quieter the further we walked. 

View from Thorpe Cloud

I've given this one a four popcorn rating, the five star weather probably helped! It had a couple of climbs, nice views, and a bit of variety. I'd agree with moderate difficulty, the optional climb up Thorpe cloud is quite steep but definitely worth it for the view at the top. The other climb through woodland had a pretty vague path with the odd tree scattered over the track, but other than that, the route was very easy to follow. 

Jiminy on top of Thorpe Cloud

Ilam Rock

Woodland track, uphill and vague

I have already realised that the guide times the book sets for each walk allows you plenty of time. This is now the fourth walk out of four to have been done significantly quicker (45m for this walk). However, the distance we covered on this one was almost the same as the guide. 

The most pointless gate ever?

Crossing fields nearing the end of the walk

1,2,3... AWWWWWWW!

 Again, a nice short route that I would recommend to almost anybody. Dove Dale is great to visit even if you just wanted a picnic by the river Dove, just don't go in the holidays if you want some peace and quiet! 

Thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

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