June 5th
The Roaches & Luds Church
Pathfinder White Peak Guidebook Walk #25 (8.25 Miles)
Start 10:00, Finish 16:15 (6hrs 15 mins) 10.3 Miles actual
Height Gain 1,420 Feet (433m)
On a hot and sunny Saturday morning we set off by car from Longnor and after about 7 miles arrived at "The Roaches" and near to our start point of Roaches Gate.
Parking here is "Roadside", and at 09:45 was quite busy with us having to park about half a mile from the actual start point in the guide book.
The Satmap was charged and ready today, so here are the route maps and the log completed at the end of the walk.
The picture above was taken near to where we parked, the start point being further along the road after it curves to the left. The Roaches can be seen in the background, and the ridge top we would be walking along.
It was noted at this point that an Ice Cream van was parked up by the roadside, though there was no driver. This we throught could be a good incentive to reach the end of the walk hoping the van would be open for business later on, after a hard days slog in the hot sun.
The first mile of the walk is mainly uphill via tracks, and then through woodland, and more open tracks again to gain access to the top of the roaches ridge.
The path up onto the ridge can be seen above. The walk then undulates across the ridge for several miles with excellent views and the interesting rock formations of the ridge line itself.
Considering the number of vehicles at the bottom, the paths were not too crowded and groups of walkers were spread in a reasonable manner, the only large group encountered at the summit cairn.
The Roaches can certainly be reccomended for the views and not too much effort in gaining ascent.
The Roaches & Luds Church
Pathfinder White Peak Guidebook Walk #25 (8.25 Miles)
Start 10:00, Finish 16:15 (6hrs 15 mins) 10.3 Miles actual
Height Gain 1,420 Feet (433m)
On a hot and sunny Saturday morning we set off by car from Longnor and after about 7 miles arrived at "The Roaches" and near to our start point of Roaches Gate.
Parking here is "Roadside", and at 09:45 was quite busy with us having to park about half a mile from the actual start point in the guide book.
The Satmap was charged and ready today, so here are the route maps and the log completed at the end of the walk.
The picture above was taken near to where we parked, the start point being further along the road after it curves to the left. The Roaches can be seen in the background, and the ridge top we would be walking along.It was noted at this point that an Ice Cream van was parked up by the roadside, though there was no driver. This we throught could be a good incentive to reach the end of the walk hoping the van would be open for business later on, after a hard days slog in the hot sun.
The first mile of the walk is mainly uphill via tracks, and then through woodland, and more open tracks again to gain access to the top of the roaches ridge.
The path up onto the ridge can be seen above. The walk then undulates across the ridge for several miles with excellent views and the interesting rock formations of the ridge line itself.
Considering the number of vehicles at the bottom, the paths were not too crowded and groups of walkers were spread in a reasonable manner, the only large group encountered at the summit cairn.
The Roaches can certainly be reccomended for the views and not too much effort in gaining ascent.
The track then descends slowly to a lane at Roach End, crossing to continue through a gap stile. This then bears right uphill and into the woodland part of the walk leading to "Luds Church".
We ate lunch near some large rock formations and then continued on taking the far right path of three at this point and continued through the woodland.
Beware, as the turn right in the woodland through a gap and into Luds Church is easily missed.
This may have been due to a couple of other walkers sat nearby distracting our attention with the usual greetings, and we continued on up the path unaware we had passed the turn point through a "rock entrance".
We ended up going a backwards route through Luds Church, and then once out (and through the turn point we missed) back along the trail again before rejoinnig and continuing on. This we think added about a mile onto the route. (But it was worth it as Luds Church was impressive, going through the moss encrusted chasm!!)
As can be seen it was quite steep and slippy, care had to be taken. Would be easy to slip and hurt an ankle in the process. We were careful and made it through with no problems.
As can be seen it was quite steep and slippy, care had to be taken. Would be easy to slip and hurt an ankle in the process. We were careful and made it through with no problems.
Once through Luds Church we continued on through the woodland before ascending again and back to Roach End and the cross point of paths and stiles we encountered earlier.
It was at this point that water was starting to look a little low, but it was here that we saw in the distance an Ice Cream Van (or more to the point THE ice cream van seen earlier at the bottom start point), with a queue of hot and thirsty walkers already present.
Needless to say we joined the short queue (had money with me today!!). So, two 99 cornets and bottles of water later we went on our way.
Here we turned along a lane runnig parallel with the track we had just walked along (we did check twice if this was the way we were suppsoed to go!!) .... It was!!
The route back form here was mainly a valley type walk across a mix of rough paths, grass, gorse and lanes. The views were stunning even though we were not walking along the Roaches ridge, but we had good views of the ridge and surroundings form a lower and different perspective. A good route, rather than simply heading back along the ridge again.
We reached the start point at around 16:15, and although fairly tired from the effort and the hot sun, we both agreed it had been a good walk, if not a little tiring given the hot weather.
We resrted with the car aircon on full, and headed back to out B&B, Spring cottage in Longnor.
Our Walk Score: 8/10
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