Lyme Park

Lyme Park - rear facade

In Cheshire for a wedding, we went on this walk to try to clear away the resulting hangover. Lyme Park is an 18th century Palladian style country house set in vast grounds on the edge of the Peak District. The walk starts from the car park, passes the back of the house and then climbs to a building called the Cage, from which ladies would apparently watch hunting.

The Cage

From there, it climbs and swings around through woodland, above the side of the house and past a folly called the Lantern, built from stones taken from the Elizabethan house which preceded the current one and reaches the open moor. The bulk of the walk is a circuit of the outer edges of the estate across high windy moors, with splendid views in all directions.

The Lantern

Overall six miles of exhilarating walking, with the opportunity from the various ridges and high points to see where you've been before - always a bonus.

Rating: four stars.

From: Peak District Walks (Jarrold Pathfinder Guides).

Map: Explorer OL1.

Reflections

How unusual to start and end a walk from the car park of a National Trust property but reach isolated moorland before long - and then return to hordes and hordes of people picnicking beside the lake.

Sightings

Lots of sheep! A few orange tip and small white butterflies (or maybe they were female orange tips, which - rather unfairly - don't have any orange on their wings). Larks in the fields beside the descent from the moors and some lovely cowslips (unfortunately the photo was blurred). Unlike on my last walk nearer home in Arborfield the rhododendrons were not yet in flower.