Walk a Mile with Mick
Mick Melvin's Walks
www.michaelmelvin.co.uk
Page2. Click the Photos for a bigger image.
Leave the Bull Stones and head in the direction of Crow Stones, and you will soon pick up a narrow path in the heather that takes more or less a level course across the moor, soon arriving at the head of a deep Clough that drops into the main Derwent valley on your left. This is Broadhead Clough and is easily identified because of a series of grouse butts which are scattered about it's head, it is at this Click to view a bigger image point that you need to watch out for the debris from the crash site. While you are still in the area of the grouse butts progress along the narrow path in the direction of Crow Stones, and keep looking slightly uphill to your right (East) As you drop into a stream, which crosses the path, the crash site can be seen up stream in the bed of the shallow gully, which forms the streambed. The aircraft (Airspeed Consul TF-RPM) was on a delivery flight from Croydon to Iceland when it crashed into the hill on the morning of 12th April 1951 killing the three man crew on board at the time. The pilot was Pall Magnusson aged 26 from Sentiarnarnesi, Iceland and he was accompanied On this fateful flight by a wireless operator, Alexander Watson aged 42, an Englishman from Leytonstone, London, and a passenger Johann Rist aged 35 another Icelander. According to Ron Collier, the pilot had apparently opted to fly the aircraft using only visual means instead of using instruments, as he approached the Pennines in bad visibility he lost sight of the ground and ran into the hill under full power. As can be seen from the photos quite a lot of the debris is still on the ground Click to view a bigger image including one of the Cheetah engines which has been stripped almost bare of it's cylinders. There is an area with a number of wooden crosses stuck into the ground and a small glass jar, which used to contain a poem. If you are like me, you will probably be leaving the site in a pensive mood, and you need to continue along the same path in the direction of Crow Stones Edge, which is reached in about ten minutes walk from the site. The route that you take from here back to the turning circle will depend on your ability to navigate on open moorland, if you feel confident to find your way without the benefit of a path, stay with me, otherwise return to the lake the way you came. The rocks of Crow Stones edge mark the southern end of a gritstone outcrop with the weirdly shaped rocks of Crow Stones poised on its northern edge, and the tors of Rocking Click to view a bigger image Stones situated below them.From the tors find a faint path heading north in the direction of Stainery Clough Head and follow this until you have passed the rocky ground on your left, and can easily turn onto a south westerly direction on pathless terrain. Keep on the level ground above, and parallel to the Clough, and you will come, with out any difficulty to a narrow path leading steeply down to the confluence of the river Derwent and Stainery Clough, from here you take the wide, easy riverside path southwards back to the turning circle and the end of the walk.