Winter trips can be a tricky beast to manage. With the sun setting at what seems like mid-afternoon, it can be hours between the end of a walk and a nice, hot dinner. So here we are at Ilam Hall in the Peak District, enjoying improbably good weather, but even so: if you’re not back at the hostel by 4:30pm, then you’re walking in the dark.
Dave ruled us with a rod of iron. Breakfast was served promptly at 8am every morning, regardless of whether anyone was up yet, and that getting up seemed to get later and later as the trip went on. Certainly, it was only Tim who ever made it in time to help with the sandwiches.
So, you’d think that with breakfast and sandwiches already done, there would be no problem getting everyone out of the door at 9am so we could maximise daylight? Well, OK, we never quite managed 9am, but a couple of times we got going before 9:30, which must be some kind of record.
Our first full day was beautiful, blue skies, but chilly. John and Doug headed over to Chatsworth for a day looking round the grounds with the added delight of their winter lights festival. The rest of us set off up the Manifold Valley, heading out on the low route and returning on the high route. By lunchtime it was getting especially cold, so we didn't really need Tim to encourage us into the pub for a swift pint at the Royal Oak, Wetton. This lubricated the walk back, but we still didn’t make it before the tea rooms closed at 3pm. So it was our own tea, biscuits and lebkuchen to tide us over until dinner.
Day 2 was another bright, beautiful day. Today's walk was the classic Dovedale – starting with the stepping stones. The stones were a little more challenging than usual, as one had been pushed out of position by the winter storms, but the rest of the walk was a stunning deep gorge with rock spires and arches, all whilst walking along the River Dove. There was even a tea-and-cake stop at Milldale. Tim was mildly traumatised by the lack of any pubs enroute, so elected to extend on to Thorpe whilst the rest of us returned to Ilam for tea and more biscuits.
New Year’s Eve was the best weather yet. We woke up to a heavy frost and the view looked like a winter wonderland under a perfect blue sky. Our route took us over frozen pastures through Blore Common and the twisty, ancient oaks of Okeover Park and a lunchtime drink in the pub at The Okeover Arms, where Doug popped over to meet us. We still had the walk back, but when given the option of a direct route, or a route via Tim’s recommended pub from the day before, it was unanimous! And so our NYE walk became a pub crawl and we definitely tottered home in the dark.
Robin and Sarah prepared a superb final meal of 2025 and we span it out for hours by repeated courses of cheese and biscuits. After that, all the fresh air and sunshine took their toll and several of our party didn’t quite make it to midnight. For the rest of us it might have required the application of matchsticks, but we saw out 2025 and welcomed in 2026 in style.
New Year’s Day and it was time to go home. Well, not quite yet. With the cars packed there was still enough time for a select group to scamper up Thorpe Cloud. Some overnight rain had left the ground exceptionally slippery in places, and we were reminded of Dave’s fall 10 years previously, but with a little care there was yet another blue sky view to be enjoyed, which we did, but boy was it cold. The scamper up was followed by a scamper down and straight into the Ilam Hall National Trust tearoom – our first visit of the week. Steaming pots of tea and parsnip soup with hunks of crusty bread was just the cure we needed. Frostbite averted and a new year begun. Bring it on!
Ali