09/04/19 - Day 2 - Inn Way to Peak District - Baslow to Youlgrave

Start - Baslow
Finish - Youlgrave
Distance - 12 Miles
Key Features - Chatsworth House, Nine Ladies Standing Stones
Geocaches - 6
Pubs - 9 Available, 5 visited, 1 declined (!)
Previous Day - Day 1


After yesterday's full review of all the Edges, we have a chance to see what else the Peak District is famous for.  The English Country House.

The first three miles of this interesting walk are through the grounds of Chatsworth House.   The Palace of the Peak.

Plenty of history in the guidebook and I'll only relay its been in the same family for over 450 years and the gardens were modeled by Capability Brown.

Its free for ramblers to enter and seemed popular with joggers, dog walkers and a massive herd of deer that ran along side me.

I have 1000s of similar photos available

Company through the grounds

A splendid gentle start and after that beauty, a chance for another thing of beauty in the little village of Beeley.   A second Devonshire Arms with Timothy Taylor Landlord.   Good news, its open at 11:05am.   Bad News, £4.85 for the privilege of breakfast beer.

Breakfast Beer at the Devonshire Arms

Fortified for the climb to Rowsley, I walk through the abandoned Burntwood quarry, where they have seemingly dumped most of their output down the wooded banks.  Huge green boulders everywhere.

At a slightly more acceptable time of midday, I arrive in Rowsley.   Two pubs and something that has never happened before on any Inn Way happens.   I walk on past a fully functional open one.

Stay with me BlogFans.   This is a one off and doesn't happen again.

Unload the Toddlers at the Grouse and Claret

The Grouse and Claret and the Peacock are right next door to each other.   The G&C has a carpark full of mummies unloading massive prams from car boots, whilst their elder children are tear arsing around the car park.

I'll go for the glamour of the Peacock, where they offer real ales, good food and fly-fishing.   All this in a building from 1652.

Peacock - Since 1652

Rather posh for a rucksack carrying Rambler but I am spotlessly clean due to the great weather and they don't bat an eyelid.

Its the sort of place that is so posh that they don't have a till behind the bar.   You pay the receptionist.  £5.40 for a pint of Peak Ales Swift Nick.   Presumably, the receptionist puts the money straight into the vault with all the other gold bullion.    A surprisingly high quality beer from a place where everyone else is on G&Ts, pretending to be able to identify the products on the menu.   I had to give up after mushroom soup.

Vert nearly pint of the week - Swift Nick

Pleasant climbing through field systems and woodland to reach pretty Stanton in Peak.   It has a pub but pre-adventure investigation showed it wasn't open on a Tuesday.  No photos, as it was a diversion from my climb to Stanton Moor.   The 4000 year old Nine ladies Stone Circle an obvious highlight in the wild, high level moorland.

Dead Centre in Stanton in Peak

Nine Ladies.  I counted.

Stanton Moor

Into silent Birchover, where a sign at the start of the villages instructs you to be quiet.   There are two pubs that could do with communicating with each other.   Both closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  They may be an opportunity for them to open alternate days but to be fair, I didn't see (or hear) a soul.

Today is Tuesday

Druid had the prettier sign

The Limestone Way is picked up for the first time and provides very pleasant walking up to Robins Hood Stride and over some very green hills all the way into Youlgrave.

The most misspelled village in England.  It has an extra "e" on my OS Map.

Three pubs.

My home for the night is the George, which makes me feel like Bill Bryson in describing its quirky English uniqueness.   I have three rooms - which you couldn't quite class as a suite.   Behind an unlockable sliding door, I have a main bedroom with a window that won't open, a closet with the WC and a bathroom with a huge stain on the ceiling.    I loved it.   It had biscuits and a bath.

Of course, the bar is where the action is and they served beautiful Theakstons Black Bull Bitter to be enjoyed on proper pub furniture.

Home for the Night

Proper Pub Furniture

Although the menu looked good, I needed to investigate the other pubs.

The Farmyard Inn turned into a mistake through bad timing.   7pm and I enter the door, only slightly disturbed that it is a Greene King.   Inside, its bedlam.   Kids that I can only describe as free range, charging all over the place.   The desperately middle class parents do nothing to control them and one particular goon encourages the horseplay by offering piggy back rides.

When they leave, much to the relief of the other patrons, the landlady apologies to everyone.   We feel her pain, as she had to stop the wildlings from playing with the very much alight fire.

Give me a pub with dogs any day - but by the end of the week, even this belief is challenged.   The Timothy Taylor Landlord would have normally been a pleasure.

Farmyard by name.

The night is saved by the 1674 Bulls Head Hotel.   Easily pub of the week, even if the beer was limited to a couple of Marstons.

Two rooms divided by a central serving area.   The front bar is the converging point for all the village - we have both the darts team readying themselves for an away game in Stanton in Peak.  We also have every young man in town with an interest in football but not having BT Sports.   An argument about whether it should be the Liverpool or Man City/Spurs European game was not going to be helped by me asking if we could watch the Baggies on Sky Sports.

I first dined and then sat at the bar from the lovely restaurant to enjoy the carry on and seeing a British Public house operating in exactly the fashion that makes them unique and loved the world over.

Entertainment since 1674

Pub of the Week - The Bulls Head Hotel, Youlgrave