Curbar & Froggatt

Strange sounding title today, but it refers to our walk today. Waking up to a lovely sunny morning, we decided to make the most of it and take our walk along Curbar and Froggatt edges. This panorama picture taken from where we parked the car, looking up towards the edge.

Froggatt Edge is a gritstone escarpment in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District national park, in Derbyshire, England and situated in close proximity to the villages of Calver, Curbar and Baslow. Map HERE.

At the top of the escarpment is a part-managed heather moor, purple in summer and periodically set alight to alter the characteristics of the heather. Below the escarpment is a forest of birch trees which is purple in winter. The edge is a place of outstanding natural beauty and offers excellent views across both moorland and valley. On the paths that run along both the top and bottom of the escarpment, the underlying gritstone is often exposed and subsequently worn by the passage of many feet, creating a warm-coloured sand that is characteristic of this part of the Peak District. The edge itself stands around 1000ft above sea level and normally affords magnificent views of the Derwent Valley and over towards Chatsworth House. Today however, the mist was swirling around and almost robbed us of the views.As with many of the gritstone edges in the Peak District, Froggatt was used as a source of millstones. A number of half-completed millstones can still be found at the bottom of the edge.