That's going above and beyond to grab tiles that, Kev - waiting for a special open day. I'll bet the abbey itself was fascinating? Isn't it where the nutty 5th Duke of Portland, William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck lived? Total recluse - even built a long tunnel under his grounds from the house to the railway station so that he could travel in his coach to get a train without anyone seeing him!

Another top place near you is Calke Abbey, which I guess you've visited loads of times. We managed to get onto a special "access all areas" tour recently where they took us into all the secret passages and hidden rooms. Very interesting it was.

I went to a little place just under the flanks of the Black mountains called Craswell for a meal at the Bull with a friend on Sunday , afterwards we went for a walk to recover . I had seen Craswell Priory on the OS map so went there via a stunning BW the only trouble was the gates presented a variety of challenges so I was glad to be without a bike for once . The ruins were quite impressive it was the highest priory/monastery in the country and I was amused by the interpretation board it said " the place was so remote that they couldn't be bothered to destroy it properly"

Raggedstone wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2023 8:46 pm I went to a little place just under the flanks of the Black mountains called Craswell for a meal at the Bull with a friend on Sunday , afterwards we went for a walk to recover . I had seen Craswell Priory on the OS map so went there via a stunning BW the only trouble was the gates presented a variety of challenges so I was glad to be without a bike for once . The ruins were quite impressive it was the highest priory/monastery in the country and I was amused by the interpretation board it said " the place was so remote that they couldn't be bothered to destroy it properly"

That sounds like a great place, will try and pop over there sometime

Raggedstone wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2023 8:46 pm I went to a little place just under the flanks of the Black mountains called Craswell for a meal at the Bull with a friend on Sunday , afterwards we went for a walk to recover . I had seen Craswell Priory on the OS map so went there via a stunning BW the only trouble was the gates presented a variety of challenges so I was glad to be without a bike for once . The ruins were quite impressive it was the highest priory/monastery in the country and I was amused by the interpretation board it said " the place was so remote that they couldn't be bothered to destroy it properly"

Nice pub, nice menu... and prices to match! Food is excellent though. Nice that it's open again after several years closed.

From memory there is a nice old ridgeway drovers road behind the pub but well used by pony trekkers last time I was there (over 10 years ago!).
Never been to that Priory though, must do that. I have ridden the loop from Llanthony Priory to Cwmyoy Church and around to the Bull then across below Hay Bluff and back to Llanthony. Nice little loop.

Picked off the VV square that I missed out on last week. Got to it via Top Withens, I.e. Wuthering Heights

Was she in?

Nah, blooming degenerate has really let the place go.

This weekend’s efforts:

Saturday I rode into Lochan na Earba, set up camp (so that’s May’s BAM in the bag) then did the three Munros up from there. Didn’t get back to the tent until 2130

Sunday AM I rode round to Culra put the tent up and then did Ben Alder and Beinn Bheoil. Ben Alder was my 71st Munro so exactly a quarter done

Yesterday I was feeling tired and my knee was giving me gyp so I did as little as possible but noticed a track that appeared to end in the middle of nowhere. Yep it did! But might have got an extra VV square

Then this AM as noted in the My Ride thread I headed out. Tomorrow I’m going to investigate those burns that split instead of joining as they head downstream. See the geographical oddities thread

Went looking for waterfalls, ended up finding a lost world!

Whenever I've ridden/driven along upper Wharfedale my eye has been drawn to a large reentrant, Redmire Woods, on the opposite side of the valley that the OS map notes has waterfalls. With today being a drizzly, muggy, nothing sort of a day we decided to go and have a look. I'd expected to get to the beck and follow it upstream to find the waterfalls.

That didn't prove possible because of the vegetation but we stumbled upon a maze of stone revetements that were built in the 19th century to allow the owner and their guests to walk around the woods. Apparently there's nearly 4 miles of them! Even more amazing was that the owner during the 1930s used to drive her car along them Some of the walkways obviously used to give views of the waterfalls but the best part of a century of tree and bush growth has limited the views so we never got to see the largest fall which is in a sort of mini Goredale Scar. The passing of time has also led to lots of tree fall across the old paths so it's not hands in pockets type walking.

It's NT owned and there's public access but really only along the major tracks - there's a couple of main loops shown on the site map - but it wouldn't take much to get the revetements back into shape, an hour or two with a bow saw would deal with most blockages.

In May 1986 I walked up Ben Nevis with my Dad, along with a group including an 80 year old on his 80th ascent (it was sloooow). It was my first Munro.
Here's Dad in orange (probably a shirt and tie underneath......) the guy in the deer stalker's looking disparagingly at his footwear I think.



Yesterday I climbed the Ben for a second time, this time with my son, and via the Carn Mor Dearg ridge, which I've been meaning to do for 30 years or so. Not much of a view until the ridge, when the cloud came and went, making it very atmospheric. We saw 4 others on the ridge, followed by over 200 from the summit to our turn right at the lochan. There was a queue of 20+ folks waiting to climb to the summit for a photo!