Wednesday was forecast to be a fine day so I had planned a walk.  We set off from our cottages to Carsington Reservoir and parked at the Sheepwash car park (free!)   We picked up the path that went into the village which we have never walked through.  It is always different when you walk through as you can stop and look at the buildings like the church and the houses that you just drive by.  There was an information board with snippets about the village and the thing that struck me most was the bit about the Flying Coffins that flew over for the D Day landings (if you had seen the recent D Day programmes with Dan Snow you will know what I mean). From here we picked up the lane that became a track heading towards Brassington. With a steady ascent we had some wonderful views over Carsington Water. The landscape was pockmarked with old lead mining heaps and also limestone outcrops. Typical White Peak landscape, but the whole of this walk is actually outside the Peak Park.  Soon Brassington came into view and we trooped down the hill into the village by the school. As it was lunchtime the children were out playing. Like a lot of old lead mining villages their used to be many pubs but now there are only two. The walk took us through the churchyard and as we left the village on another ascent we had some lovely views back and could just make out Carsington water in the distance. I thought this would be a good spot for lunch. It was quite warm by this stage.  The path carried on to pick up the road to Longcliffe but before we reached this we could make out Rainster Rocks, which is the site of an ancient settlement. Luckily the road wasn’t busy and after we passed under the High Peak Trail we walked through the old station yard to pick up the trail heading to Harborough Rocks. The first part of the walk had been through fields but this part of the walk was the ugly part as we passed the various quarries and works so it was also quite noisy but these are an essential part of the area. We also saw the old aircraft lookout post from the war. The trail wasn’t busy and after a cutting Harborough Rocks came into view. We can see them from Bolehill and we had walked along this part of the trail the other Christmas when our friends were with us. Further along we picked up the path back to Carsington. We passed an old windmill and a big but apparently abandoned construction site but we could not find what it was about. We also passed a rocky formation called the kings chair from which there was a lovely view over Carsington Water, although the rock will have been there long before the reservoir.  A steep descent back into Carsington then back to the car. On the way home I had an ice cream from Monyash and then Chris and Smudge did their final herding in of the cows. We discovered afterwards that the construction site is where the contested wind farm is being built but that construction has been halted as under the base of one of the proposed turbines they have found an old lead mine working! We will be keeping an eye on developments.  Enjoy the photos.