To avoid the results of the excesses of New Year’s Eve on New Year’s Day, which happened to be a Wednesday, the Slow Warts decided on an outing on New Year’s Eve morning. By going on Tuesday, we would surely avoid the usual Slow Warts’ Wednesday woeful winter wet and windy weather. And we did, almost. There was no rain as we set off from the Strines Inn, it was about 8⁰C and partially sunny (so not in darkness) but it was windy, very windy. There had been weather warnings for strong winds rain and snow on high ground for Wednesday, so we were spared most of that. The wind along Strines Edge was hard work but the young ones, Tim, Tom and Michael, enjoyed the challenge whilst the elders of the group (Andy and I) hung back and endured the challenge. Andy’s plan was to revisit rocks and boulders near the route of the Club Championships which had been held in this area. They were to the south of Black Hole.
We reluctantly left the track on the Edge and dived steeply down to Strines Dike to climb steeply out heading west through the brown battered down bracken. One of the advantages of winter conditions is the reduced resistance of bracken. Green is definitely not for go in the summer months, so we should embrace our fortune of a slightly easier passage across the moors in winter. Heather, by contrast continues to thrive in winter unless it has been mowed when the moor has almost ideal running conditions. It’s all a question of finding the most efficient way to join up the patches of mown heather. Tom has taken to Google Earth to do just this.
We did find the unnamed string of rocks and boulders and Tim suggested naming them Berry’s Boulders in view of a recent (significant) birthday. DPFR have a tendency to give anonymous boulders and features a name, e.g. Tom’s Tree and Bob’s Rock and others which I can’t remember. Mind you, the 95 hills over 400m above sea level in the Peak District have all been named Ethels after Ethel Haythornthwaite who was an advocate for preserving the countryside of the Peak District.

We moved on to a well-established set of named rocks, the Cakes of Bread, which are distinctive and are often used as a check point in various club races, often the last one before the access gate near Strines Inn. However, in our search for curiosities and oddities, our next point of interest was the Grotto, a concrete block and stone structure with a fireplace and a hole in the roof acting as a chimney, we thought. It also had a floor 150mm deep in water, all the facilities you would want!?
The outing had been planned to be for about 90 minutes so we dashed across Brogging Moss and Foulstone Moor, searching for mown heather patches before crossing the stream to follow the much over-grown path towards the access gate. However, Tom and Tim lured us through the bracken to a memorial (?) stone with the letter neatly FTM neatly carved on one side. Much speculation followed but no definitive answer had we, so in the end it was suggested that “Find the Marshall” might be appropriate for the identity of a future race check point,
We’d had a laid back and enjoyable outing, a good way to see in the New Year. Thanks to all.
Graham