I have always been aware of the village of Shirley the other side of Ashbourne ever since we moved to our Bolehill Cottages near Bakewell  (see here).  I also have a book of walks that has a five mile circular walk from Osmanston to Shirley.  Although a bit cloudy to start with on Tuesday 15 July we set off and headed to Osmaston parking in the village hall car park.  Osmaston has some thatched houses, unusual for Derbyshire, and the walk sets off along a bridle way, also known as the Bonnie Prince Charlie Walk, through Osmaston Park.  The first interesting building we came across was an old mill which was built in an alpine style complete with waterwheel.  Continuing on we came across a field of poppies, before taking the lane into Shirley.  The walk heads off before going into the village but we chose to take a look around.  We came across the pub and decided to have lunch there although we had packed sandwiches.  The pub looked old fashioned on the outside but was very modern and busy on the inside.  We sat outside in the small garden with the dogs and had some nice sandwiches.  After a stroll around the village (I was looking for a ‘Shirley’ road sign so I could take a picture of it but couldn’t find one) we picked up the Centenary Way. On this part of the walk we went through a number of crop fields, it’s amazing how the agriculture could be so different and yet it was only about twenty five miles away from Bakewell.  By now the sun had come out so it felt warm.  We soon turned off onto another path heading back to Osmanston.  This passed the remains of Osmaston Hall (a chimney tower) which was demolished in the 1960’s.  After we got back to the car we had a scenic drive around to Shirley and found a road sign to photograph.  Then onto Ashbourne where we picked up some tea from M&S.  On the way home we realised we hadn’t visited the well dressings at Over Haddon so swung by and parked in the car park.  We had time for late tea and cake at the Garden Tea room where we had a chat with the owners before walking round to the well dressings.  We also stopped t the pub for a beer tapas before finally making our way home.  Just as well I wasn’t hungry as there were a number of emails and phone calls waiting for us which resulted in three bookings before bedtime!  Enjoy the photos.