Summer Camping

[lunnie]

Hi, I am camping at Barn Farm, Birchover, Matlock DE4 2BL brilliant site for everyone, great for the walkers amongst you.

Free Hot showers, clean toilets, loads of loo roll

Peacocks wandering around, sauna!!! games room, pot washing indoor and outdoor. washer & dryer.

Stanton Moor at the top edge, Nine Stone Ladies circle about 20min walk away.
Bakewell 4 miles, Youlgreave 2miles, Ashbourne 14miles. it is on the A5056 The Mires.

I am with my eldest David and his family for the school holidays - me sleeping in the awning annexe BUT with a proper bed!! near enough for my son to check on his home in Derby and only 53 miles for me to check on mine!! Lovely stone villages.

Brilliant staff, and at the weekends there is a Bacon Butty Van!!! hot drinks, hot food and a friendly smile and the prices are ok too, great for the tenters.

Site busy at weekends but lovely and quiet weekdays. My grandsons are loving it, playing outside all day, eating us out of house and home

My other sons have even managed to come and visit a couple of times!! more than they do when I am home, so maybe I should come and live here!!

There are a couple of hook ups not many but a few, prices look expensive but just speak with the Manager Mark and haggle!

We have a great deal, £50 per week complete with electric that is van, awning with annex, 2 cars, 5 ppl. and family can stay too. This is in the main school holidays as well.

If anyone is passing please come and say Hello we are on the green!!! you cannot miss us, next to the millstone facing the tenting field across the road and the other field behind us. Great spot, great views but under the trees ( only level place for us, with wanting to face out across the valley)

Kettle at the ready for a brew xxx

[Annie van]

Hi Lunnie

Derbyshire is such a beautiful county, and with two distinct areas - the White Peak to the south, where you are staying, and the Dark Peak further north and with some tougher walking. We used to stay regularly at Youlgreave for weekends when we lived in Notts, and we led many rambles there for our Rambling Club. You've brought back some lovely memories for me. I knew I would miss Derbyshire when we moved back down south, but I often describe the Island as Derbyshire by the sea, as so many areas remind me of there. We do go back there from time to time.

Glad you're having a good time, and you got a good deal at the site too. The bacon butty van sounds good!
Happy days, Mary

[jayjay]

Sounds like a lovely site, Lunnie! And sounds fun with all the family on board!

It sounds like a great deal at only £50 a week as well! I hope you get some decent weather and enjoy visiting all the lovely places around there as well. I have some special memories of the Nine Ladies stone circle from about 20 years ago! It's a lovely place, in a lovely location. Enjoy!

[lunnie]

Hi Mary, I am from Gorton, Manchester so the Dark peak also was my stamping ground and with living in Derby for a time and travelling to Ashton Under Lyne every week, 52 weeks of the year, I got to see the full beauty of both areas.

Goyt Valley was a favourite place, when you could build a fire to cook on!!! those were the days

Kinder Scout, Castleton, Buxton, Blue John Mines, Hayfield, Matlock, Matlock Bath and Bakewell, also as a weekend ride.

Pleased it brought you happy memories back.

Jay Jay it is lovely up by the Nine Ladies, views are just great! we are really enjoying ourselves, except for the 14yr old he wants to sit on his x-box!!! not allowed, but he is still running around and using his scooter and flying kites

[jayjay]

This will make you laugh! (If it works, that is...)

Me, 20 years ago, one at the Nine Ladies, one at Thor's Cave!

The beginning and end of my modelling career, too cold by half! LOL!!

The photos are a bit grainy as they were originally glass slides for a slide show.

[sparky]

Flamin 'eck Jayjay.... I wouldn't be surprised if your second pic was snaffled and used in one of those 'Is it a ghost' documentaries!
VERY atmospheric!

[sparky]

Meant to say... the colours are amaaaazing in your first pic!

[jayjay]

Thanks Sparky! Got more is it a ghost looking ones somewhere...

The first one was taken high up at Thor's Cave, after traipsing thru mud and cows and changing into that thin dress (yet again) in the freezing cold... Stunning location though. And the Nine Sisters... up 2 hours before dawn to get there for the summer solstice.

I was made of much sterner stuff then than I am now. And too old now to look stunning in next-to-nowt! LOL!!

[Annie van]

Hi Jayjay

What fantastic photos! I'm surprised you're modelling career began and ended there - but I do remember how cold it can be in that part of the world. The first photo - was that really the colour of the sky? It's brilliant
Mary

[Annie van]

Hi Lunnie

I know all those places well - lots of memories there. I remember the first time we stayed at Hayfield and it was my first climb up on to Kinder Scout, in my early rambling days. I thought how well I'd done climbing all the way up there to this bleak and lonely place. Then we got to Kinder Downfall, and the whole world and his wife were up there picnicking with the sheep!
I've since done loads of walking and climbing, my highlights are in the Lake district backpacking for a week's tough walking, The West Highland Way and Ben Nevis in 1999, and Walk the Wight - 26/7 miles of ups and downs 3 times since. So glad I've got these memories as over the last five years I've not been too well and following a collapse, I've had to build up my walking again. I'm much better and can manage 7 or 8 flattish miles now, and have got back up on to Tennison Down on the Island this year. Onward and upwards, that's my goal, and I'm getting there, this year showing a huge improvement in my walking. Still not quick enough though to keep up with a group of people.
Mary

[jayjay]

Hi Jayjay

was that really the colour of the sky? It's brilliant
Mary

Thanks! I think the photographer used a coloured filter, but not sure... I was perched on a sheer rock face and more concerned about being blown off than what the sky was like! I was supposed to be holding out my hands to the sky, but couldn't unclench them, I recall!

Thors Cave is really magical.

[Annie van]

Hi Jayjay

Yes, we love Thors cave too.