Boundary Walk 01

We set-off from Dovestones Reservoir with several Volunteer Rangers, as well as Engagement Rangers and interested members of the public, to show us a section of the North West Boundary of the Peak District National Park.

This was a journey that took in a landscape that provided entertainment and leisurely strolls by the reservoir, to more rugged ‘wilderness’ higher up on the moors, taking in breathtaking views of near-by cities, bodies of water and a land scared, but recovering, from the recent Saddleworth Moor fires.

The walk took us along the ridge, past Wimberry rocks, with its memorial plaques, along through bog and moorland, over to Chew Reservoir and back down Chew Road to Dovestones. During this walk conversations drifted from conservation to preservation to restoration, but also touched on personal insights into volunteering and the mythology of the Dark Peak.

The very nature of walking in a large group is that conversations start and stop and rejoin as you negotiate your way through the terrain, taking in your surroundings as you begin to understand the nature of a boundary that at times is clearly identifiable through a natural water course or ridge, to when it disappears in a sea of heather.