The Bridestone Rocks from Lydgate

This is a pretty stiff walk up to the tops from Lydgate in the valley.  Following ancient tracks and gritstone outcrops – the views at the top are over the Cliviger Valley.

Parking up on Church Road I turned right heading underneath a large arch of a railway viaduct. 

Turning up into a field almost immediately.  This was a steep field with sheep and a couple of rams in it at the top. Here I squished through the squeeze stile pretty quickly.  

I didn’t like the look of them at all.  From here I continued up to Stoney lane 

where I turned right to come out at a rough pasture to follow a path around the hill-side before turning up a cart track

 – eventually arriving at Windy Harbour Farm and the stone sculpture – The Wizard of Whirlaw.  It looks like something from Easter Island. 

The next section was road walking to eventually take a stile off towards the Bride Stones.  The main stone (called The Bride) is impressive. 

From here I took a path heading slowly back down to Stoney Lane and down to Orchan Rocks.  The day was dulling in so I stuck to the main path back down through Kitson Wood and to the car.  

As I got to the car the rain came down so I think I struck lucky with my timing today.

All in all a good walk – maybe to do in the summer and extend it to include the Mount Cross. I think this was about 5 miles.