Lud's Church and the Roaches

The Roaches is a prominent rocky ridge above Leek and Tittesworth Reservoir in the Peak District of England. The ridge with its rock formations rises steeply to 505 metres. I'd seen photographs of this area on the internet and have wanted to visit for a while.

The views were fabulous.

This climbing hut is built into the rock face and was renovated in 1991 in memory of Don Whillans, one of Britain’s greatest Mountaineers. 

This is Doxey Pool. The home of Jenny Greenteeth, a ghost who grabs the ankles of passers by and drowns them - so the legend goes

The Trig point on the Roaches

We could see Jodrell Bank in the distance

This was a surprise! Several cows were grazing on what little grass there was on the top of the ridge. Something I have never seen before!

This is the point where we stopped for lunch

The following photographs were taken at Lud's Church. It is an immense natural cleft in the rock in an area known as the Back Forest. The feature has been formed by a landslip which has detached a large section of rock from the hillside, thus forming a cleft which is over 15 metres high in places and over 100 metres long, though usually only a couple of metres wide. The pictures just don't do it justice.

If you look very carefully at the photo below you can see a face. This is said to be The Green Knight who was defeated by Sir Gawain at the time of King Arthur

And this is the state I ended up in after walking through the forest. Thank goodness for waterproof walking shoes and trousers!