A frosty walk from Topley pike to Buxton

A walk from Topley pike to Buxton

The walk started straight up Deep dale from Topley pike. As you can see, it was a lovely, crisp morning - the sort I love best. On these sort of days, you can wrap up well, feel snug yet 'alive' more in some way? The feel of the frost in your lungs and on your face is a feeling some people would shun, but as I said, I can't wait to get out when it's like this. The other plus thing is that it's usually crystal clear air too, so makes for excellent pictures. Also, at this time of year, the light has a certain quality about it.

Halfway up the dale, we turned right, and steeply up. The warm sun - VERY warm - soon caught us and I was close to removing my fleece. There was hardly a whisper of wind, so any heat generated by the climb stayed with me. This is the view back down the dale from the direction we'd come.

I turned around and took this. Sorry for the 'sun burn', but it was difficult to get a shot without it! The right hand side of the dale has already been defrosted by the sun, while the left looks on and shivers.

The very small hamlet of King Sterndale is just outside Buxton. This is the chapel.

Our first view of Buxton across the frosty fields.

The path went across the fields and beneath this impressive viaduct. These structures ALWAYS make me stop and look. The keystones of the arches are HUGE, as are a lot of the building stones. I'd love to see something like this in the construction stage.

After King Sterndale, a short walk across frost-hardened meadows gave us our first view of Buxton.
You can see the rounded pavilion in this zoomed shot.
We heard a couple of Woodpeckers tapping away, and also heard many Robin's, Blackbirds and Thrushes.

Just LOOK at those arches!

It's a while since I walked to and around Buxton. It's a lovely place, full of really great architecture and Victorian houses. You can tell it's an affluent place as everything is done that little bit better. The central park is one of the jewels, the opera house another. There's also the famous crescent, but that was one thing I didn't get a picture of today. Here's the lake, with some of the (very expensive) houses that overlook it.

The pavillion.

How many local parks have a model train running around it?
The track would be vandalised within a week in most other towns.

On Summer nights, the park echoes to the sound of band concerts from this bandstand.

On the way back, we came across this ethereal scene. The smoke was from a small cottage 'stoking up' for the cold night ahead. It made for a nice picture though.