Ashes Hollow to Pole Bank

I’d intended the walk to be circular – up Ashes Hollow to Pole Bank, returning by Callow Hollow, or possibly the ridge just to the south. But reality wasn’t as good as the forecast – the rain started half-way through lunch, and the clouds looked heavy and threatening. So I set off back down Ashes Hollow (at first down the shorter tributary that starts near Pole Cottage). Halfway down the hollow, the sky cleared and the sun came out again…

I’d seen the ledge path, above the stream on its south side, on the map. Perhaps it would provide a slightly different return route?
– it did. Clearly a made path, but used primarily by four-legged, woolly walkers. Not for the faint-hearted, but an interesting alternative with great views down into the Ashes Hollow.

Interlocking spurs   Hawthorn

Pole Bank and Stiperstones   After the rain

The path below   Rocky spur above the hollow

Dark clouds   Small Batch cottage

Joffre reborn

The JoffreA newly-restored steam locomotive entered service this weekend, at the Apedale Light Railway’s “Made in Staffordshire” gala. The loco in question – Kerr Stuart “Joffre” class no. 3014 of 1916, had last steamed in public some 65 years ago, and when I met it at Gloddfa Ganol in 1979, it looked like a lost cause. Not so!

To see the outcome of this major restoration project, in action, visit “Apedale and the Joffre” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries