“Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells”

Summary

Located in the Peak District, Dovestone is a popular reservoir that is visited by thousands every year, either for family walks, water sports or to enjoy the beauty of the natural rolling landscape. From the reservoir there is a circular hike alongside the waters up to the moorlands via the Trinnacle, which is an impressive soaring piece of rock emerging out of the dramatic landscape, offering magnificent views of the valley below.

The Hike

We began the walk from Dovestone reservoir, taking us alongside the calming waters before slowly ascending besides the u shape valley up to Chew reservoir. Whilst climbing up to the summit, all we could hear was the calming trickle of the stream below, stopping once in a while to admire the rolling autumnal landscape that surrounded us. Just before approaching the top there was a sharp left turn, deviating onto sparse boggy moorland which was a surprise in itself as we navigated our way through the peat.

It wasn’t long until the peat turned to a dry gravel path, although it wasn’t as well maintained it was easy to follow besides the edge of the moors, in company with interesting weather rock formations high above, with epic views! Luckily it was a reasonably dry and sunny day otherwise it might have been a different kettle of fish.

Amongst the beauty that surrounded us, we decided to take a quick pit stop for lunch in a nearby rock shelter, unfortunately this was already taken by a family so we perched ourselves leaning against the rocks. “JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS” As we looked out over the scenic landscape, the peace was disturbed by one of the children who was repeating this Christmas song over and over.

It was only October!

Onwards, after scoffing our lunch down, it was time to try and seek out the Trinnacle. I was beginning to think we had missed it until we passed a group of fellow walkers that had stopped for lunch, admiring the view. “We could have stopped there? Oh wait, that’s the Trinnacle!”

It wasn’t until then, that we both realised how high we were, looking down on the valley below. The magnitude of the Trinnacle came into sight, it didn’t look real and almost looked like it could collapse from the land at any given moment.  Looking at the formation it seemed I had to climb up to the top and almost leap to the other side, vertigo certainly kicked in as I stared down the vertical drop beneath me. I didn’t stay here long.

Now with my feet firmly placed on flat ground and my heart back in my chest, we proceeded our way back down the valley towards Holme Clough. However this section was a bit more troublesome than expected, involving some steep sections of scrambling and traffic jams of people which made the descent a lot slower and frustrating at times. The final section was a lovely wide path that followed alongside Greenfield reservoir, Yeoman Hey and finishing back at Dovestone. 

A lovely end to the hike.

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