23/03/19 - Shining Tor, Cat and Fiddle No More

Distance - 12 Miles
Walk Inspiration - Trail Magazine, April 2005, Walk 3
Geocaches - 6
Pub - None

In normal conditions, this would be the best walk in an occasional series "Adventurous Pub Walks in the Peak District".   You can guess what's coming.   The only pub on route has been closed for four years.

A real shame.   The Cat and Fiddle is that iconic, its even named on the OS Map.   It was the 2nd highest pub in England.  Who knows where that accolade is held now?   I'm glad to have visited it in my early blogging days.

The scenery and walking remain as timelessly excellent as ever.

Due to Sat Nav confusion, where I mistook my cars directions at a hair pin bend near Derbyshire Bridge for "drive along a public footpath", we don't make the suggested parking at Errwood Reservoir.   With the C&F dominating the view on its high ridge, we make for a lay-by there instead.   Its adds maybe a mile and a half to the overall walk.   At the end of the day, not all members of my party are entirely happy with this.

The bit of bonus path on top of Stake Side

We head down Stake Side, across moorland and then through woods to reach a minor road at Goyt's Moss.   Acting the good Samaritans, three of us help push a camper van that has got trapped in mud.  It contained the most laid back antipodeans you could hope to meet.   I am not 100% sure they even wanted assistance, but once Paul had decided we were helping, that was that.

More Moorland walking up the other side of the valley, where we take advantage of the open access rules to head dead North along Burbage Edge.   Stunning views to the right over Buxton.

Views over Buxton

Wildmoorstone Brook provides more superb walking to Errwood Reservoir.   Bleak, lonely and blissfully quiet.

2/3rds of the Camper Van Rescuers

Errwood Reservoir

A near complete Circuit of Errwood reservoir and we're up into the grounds of Errwood Hall - a collection of Victorian ruins.   We don't get to see the main ruins of the hall but on the way to Pym Chair, the footpath does take us to a little curio.

The Shrine

Entry can be gained.   There's some religious iconography and a little book to record your visit, where we learn that someone has got engaged there today.   I'm more interested in the little book in the nearby geocache.

Pym Chair provides endless views over the moorland and a long, straight and often flagstoned footpath past Cat's Tor to Shining Tor - the highest point in Cheshire.

Shining Tor, with the more handsome Shutlingsloe in the background

There's not much to mark the flat summit of Shining Tor - a trig point the otherside of a wall and a much needed bench to finish lunch off and to toast a county top with Paul's single malt.

We'll say nothing of the grumbling once we exceed the 10 miles that I said the walk would be.

Back at the Cat and Fiddle to record it for posterity.   There may be a chance it will reopen.  The fixtures and fittings are all there - a peer through the windows revealed the furniture and a pool table, rendering the pub with a feel of abandonment similar to the Marie Celeste. 

2nd Highest (former) pub in England

Stone Inlay

Gav, feeling fiddled on this particular Real Ale Pub Walk