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After our few days in Suffolk we journey north to Sheffield and Tickhill, where we had the opportunity to meet up with the rest of the family.

We stayed at our daughter's house in Sheffield but stop off on the way to say hello and have lunch with friends in Keyworth near Nottingham.

Three cheers for the sat nav when we're negotiating the smaller back roads !

Lunch at Pat and Mike's.

Lunch was great and Mike was looking good and full of colour after a recent minor heart op . . . brilliant.

Pat was looking a bit pale in comparison, but that was purely down to the uneven flash of the camera.

The rocks of Stanage Edge as we dive over from Sheffield to Hathersage in Derbyshire's Hope Valley.

The remote Overstones Farm below the road.

In the distance the iconic Lafarge Cement Works in Hope Valley near Castleton.

The high ground to the right is Mam Tor which is where we're heading today.

Looking south over Froggatt Edge in the Matlock direction.

Driving through Hathersage Village.

The classic yellow sandstone would be repeated in many of the villages we passed through.

St Michael and All Angels’ Church at Hathersage.

Stones in the churchyard mark what is regarded as the grave of Little John (of Robin Hood fame).

Tradition has it that Little John was a Hathersage man and that he died in a small cottage near the church

- - - o o o - - -

We drove on through Castleton and Winnats Pass to the National Trust car park below Mam Tor.

Jen checking where she is placing her feet, as we start up the footpath from the car park.

A more formal group shot from today . . . quality not quantity !

We join the large number of people also aiming for the summit.

The Mam Tor walk is regarded as the most popular walk in the Dales.

From the number of people here today I think that may well be true.

We divert off-piste slightly to appreciate the view and to travel at our own speed.

This is the view south and you can see numerous parked cars all alongside the road.

Looking down on Castleton and the Lafarge Cement Works who manufacture the famous Blue Circle Cement.

There's a huge quarry to the right but to be fair it is well hidden, its extent is only obvious from the air.

As we round the slopes of Mam Tor we reach the escarpment and stand on the edge for a fine view of the Hope Valley.

The uneven land below is as a result of numerous landslides over the years.

The abandoned road below would be our return route to the car.

Also in the above picture, but here zoomed in, is the famous Blue John Mine entrance (more details later).

The rock escarpment of Mam Tor showing the complex rock strata

Time to climb the last few feet to the top.

I managed to zig-zag my way through the crowd to touch the top.

The whole of the top area has been paved . . . which is probably a good thing considering the amount of foot traffic it receives.

Click here or on the photo above for a 320 degree annotated panorama

The other 40 degrees of the picture were full of people !

Again we dropped down onto the grassy side of the hill.

The earthworks we are walking along here must be the part of the Iron Age hill fortifications (possibly dated between 800 BC and the Roman 100 AD).

The paved path is a much newer 20th Century addition.

Please . . . . why do they have to place them so close together like urban street paving ?

Why not leave a six inch gap between the stones in order to let the grass grow ?   (Answers please on a postcard)

After the over wet autumn suffered by Yorkshire and Derbyshire this year the path was very muddy.

Despite the paved track it was still  quite slippery at times and care was needed.

Ahead are the three summits of Barker Bank, Back Tor and Lose Hill.

The view left over the fence into the Edale Valley with Edale Village and Grindsbrook Clough (the valley) opposite.

The continuous straight line across the picture, seen just above the fence line, is the busy Sheffield to Manchester railway track.

We pass on using the ridgeway paved path in favour of a second lower down on the Hope Valley side.

Jen proudly crosses the stile . . . we were too polite to point out that the gate and fence were missing.

We were in the shadow of an ever increasing cloud but the distinctive Win Hill across the way stood out in the sunshine.

The object of our desires and it seems many other people's . . . Back Tor.

Ann part way up the steep climb as a shaft of sunlight breaks through behind.

The actual pitched path is often lost amongst all the other stones and rocks.

There's someone already on the flat boulder that we're aiming for at the top of the slope.

This is Jenna on the classic photo from Back Tor

looking west along the ridge, back to Man Tor on the skyline.

My turn to pose with Dylan and Dougal.

. . . and again with Ann.

     Here's the picture from our previous visit in 1982, thirty eight years ago.

The line up is Ann, our daughter Paula and our young son Gareth.  Jenna had yet to be born.

I was first sitting on this rock for a photo some sixty five years ago (it looks less in words than in numbers !)  with my brothers and sister.

(left to right)   Peter, Pamela, myself and Stephen, circa 1955 . . . taken from my dad's photo archive.

Finally one that my daughter Paula sent us, taken in 2014 when she walked here with Abi, Gareth and Jenna.

( We were not with them that day)

- - - o o o - - -

After our short stop we head up the last few feet to the summit and someone else takes our place for their photo on the stone.

Time now to head back along the ridge.

From the checking the old photo above, those two hawthorn trees have been here a very long time.

As we head back it was time to wrap up warmly and stay as dry as possible.

Jenna's phone weather forecast said sunny with just a 5% chance of rain . . . welcome to the world of 5%.

Fortunately it was only a light shower which soon headed off down the valley towards Hathersage.

It left us with an even wetter path and a cold, rather biting westerly breeze.

There's a nice looking path descending across the face of Mam Tor that will be a little more protected . . . we'll take that.

Sadly the path was an inch deep in mud and the hillside slippery from the moss growing in between the grass.

If you are geologically minded you'll love this part of the world.

The ground here is made of dark Bowland Shale rocks which suffered a major landslide about 4000 years ago

and the resultant break point left the vertical face of Mam Tor we see today.   The shales are unstable and still occasionally moving to this day.

The old A625 Manchester to Sheffield road was built in 1819 but crosses the site of the old landslides.

The following 160 years saw constant repairs and reconstruction with major work in 1912, 1933, 1946, 1952, and 1966.

The road was finally abandoned to nature in 1979 after another slide.  Information courtesy of the British Geological Survey and others.

As we walk up the road you can see the old route, complete with cats eyes on the centre line

and, where it has collapsed, you can make out the layers of each subsequent tarmac repair !

Here the whole road has dropped a good eight to ten feet,

as seen from this tall guy and his family who followed behind us.

With a final damp and muddy flourish we cross a small stream and reached the original undamaged road at the next bend.

This part of the old road now serves as a car park for the Blue John Cavern.