Pennine Lines w/c 15 May 2023

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15 May

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Peak Limestone

It's sometimes easy to forget there are still places in the UK with no mobile signal, and as I'm away in one of those places as you read this I'm bringing this email to you direct from the middle of last week. Lack of connectivity means I can't even 'phone it in'. Typed as great effort whilst packing bags and trying to decide if I can get away with only three pairs of rock shoes instead of four, and scheduled to go off on time, I am putting this week's success into the hands of technology. When has technology ever let us down? Oh, wait, hang on....

Another hotbed of poor mobile coverage is the deep dank dales of the White Peak, so I'm simply offering up here a few images of limestone bouldering and a bit of the post-industrial landscape to keep the psyche rolling until I get back and normal service is resumed. Above is the classic problem Jericho Road, a gift from the 1980s, the very birth of Peak limestone bouldering, still enjoyed today. This is at the crag who's location you just have to find out about through word of mouth, but everyone knows where it it anyway, so it won't take you long. Access as always here is sensitive, so keep a low profile and don't stray from the crag or approach path.

As an aside, if you ever wondered what you'd get if you typed "2008-era Chris Sharma bouldering on Peak Limestone" into an AI image generator then I imagine it would churn out something like this. However, I can confirm this is a real photograph.

Next up we have Beak Forest, a bit of a hidden desperate by Ned Feehally. This is at Conies Dale, a more recently discovered crag, and as is too often the case these days on limestone it's not one without its own access issues. Best advice these days is probably to approach from Eldon Quarry to the north, it's barely any longer compared to the old approach and quite nice walk.

As an aside, if you ever wondered what you'd get if you typed "2008-era Louis Theroux bouldering on Peak Limestone" into an AI image generator then I imagine it would churn out something like this. However, I can confirm once again this is a real photograph.

Above we see the unique setting of Rubicon Wall in Water-cum-Jolly Dale. Division of opinion on whether or not Rubicon is a good crag is usually quite sharp - not unlike the holds here. But it's hard to fault as a great spot for an evening, despite being a sun trap, with fish jumping out of the river to distract. The wide expanse of water here, however lovely it seems now, is entirely artificial, having been created by the damming of the river to power Cressbrook Mill during the industrial revolution.

Like many of the sites of industry during the 18th and 19th centuries the mill had a pretty horrendous record of exploitation of workers if you do a bit of reading up on the subject. In the case of Cressbrook Mill we're talking child slave labour, shipped in from orphanages and asylums as far away as London and worked to death, literally, for enormous profit. It's a grim thought to imagine the scenes here 200 years ago, and quite at odds with the apparent tranquility of the place today.

Quarryman’s Hut Detail || Stoney Middleton Dale

Of course industry still shapes the Peak even today. Stoney Middleton Dale is covered with echoes of past endeavours, like this quarryman's shack, which you will probably have driven past many times. Given half a chance nature and entropy will crack on as they always do and soften things a little, and take things back.

Below we see the nearby Horseshoe Quarry, again often dividing opinion on the merit of the climbing here but undoubtedly popular still. Walking around the upper reaches of the quarry here it's easy to forget you're in a dirty great hole in the ground, with the wild flowers out, butterflies darting around and such like. It offers a unique juxtaposition of nature and industrial relics, alongside the modern hand-of-man in the form of bolted routes and even bolts placed in the floor for bolting practice purposes. Still, you can do a lot worse for a place to explore on a sunny summer evening that's for sure. I certainly enjoyed my evening here last summer with my 'big camera', all old fashioned wood and bellows, a piece of equipment I'm sure any Victorian industrialist would have immediately recognised.