🌳Tideswell Meadow Walk 10 miles🌸Priestcliffe Cressbrook Dale Nature Reserves🌳

This varied walk is one not to miss, through beautiful scenic Nature Reserves Woodland and Waterside paths.

This stunning walk starts at Tideswell,
a large characterful village with shops cafes and pubs. It has a rich history dating back to pre-Roman times. It owed its wealth in the Middle Ages to lead mining and wool production.
Tideswell is noted for its textile industry with the nearby mills of Cressbrook and Litton which produced cotton. The main Church is situated in the centre of the village, built in the 14th century, it contains impressive wood carvings and monuments.

Leaving Tideswell, our route heads along the Limestone Way to Miller's Dale Nature Reserve.
We climb wooded slopes where ash, hazel and willow have established themselves and emerge into this beautiful meadow and Nature Reserve.
Miller's Dale Nature Reserve is a disused quarry now inhabited by many unusual plants and animals.
As we walk through the meadow, the reserve puts on a colourful show, with cowslips, early purple orchids, harebells and wild strawberries among the flowers that grow here.
Other parts of the reserve have not been affected by the lime industry and very different plants grow here. Look for valerian, rosebay willow herb and lady's bedstraw, among others. With such a variety of plants around the reserve, it is a haven for insects.
On a summer's day, butterflies such as the common blue, as well as the day-flying six-spot burnet moth can be seen. The quarry face contains crevices which provide safe nest sites for jackdaws and a pair of kestrels.

Our route continues to Priestcliffe Lees Nature Reserve, it lies on a steep limestone hillside above the River Wye and the Monsal Trail.
As we walk through this stunning meadow, wild flowers can be seen from the two public footpaths that climb up through the reserve with breathtaking views over the Wye Valley.
On the reserve, bumpy lead spoil heaps are a reminder of the area's lead mining past.
Lead spoil heaps are renowned for the special flowers they support and are distinctive to Derbyshire. In summer these top areas are alive with yellow mountain pansy and the tiny white flowers of leadwort.
Other limestone flowers are more suited to the sheltered conditions lower down the slopes. Among these are several varieties of orchid, including early purple, common spotted and fragrant. The flowers here attract various butterflies, including dark green fritillary. Many birds enjoy the cover of the trees on the lower slopes.
The ash woodland contains wych elm, bird cherry and purging buckthorn. Some birds, such as redstarts, blackcaps and willow warblers, visit for the summer. Among the year-round residents are treecreepers, green woodpeckers and nuthatches.

Leaving these stunning Nature Reserves, our route heads down to the Monsal Trail and we join the riverside trail along Litton Mill and Water Cum Jolly, Water Cum Jolly, a beautiful river gorge with limestone cliffs.

Our path turns off and goes up the beautiful Cressbrook Dale Nature Reserve, a steep sided dale and magnificent limestone chasm with varied plant and wildlife, the far reaching views are stunning all around us.
The name Cressbrook comes from the watercress once grown in the stream that runs through the valley. There are steepish paths, leading through ash woods to grassy landscape dotted with rockrose and alive with butterflies and moths, broken by rocky outcrops and screes.

The path soon leads into Tansley Dale, a shorter dale known for its wildflowers including orchids.
Leaving the pretty dales, we head for Litton, a small charming village with pretty cottages surrounding ancient stocks on the village green.
The path leads us through Litton Village along lanes back to the start in Tideswell.

An undulating walk with some gradual ascents but easy paths along trails

Toilet facilities in Tideswell and at the car park in Miller's Dale

Bring a picnic lunch snacks and enough water for the walk

Catching up stops and breaks as always

Walking boots are advisable, as always, check the weather and dress accordingly

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07505143980

Looking forward to sharing with you another one of our great adventures
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