Hob Hurst's House

We parked up in the National Trust P&D car park next to the Robin Hood pub a few miles to the east of Baslow.
We walked a little way towards Baslow along the road before crossing and dropping down to the little bridge over Heathy Lee Brook.
Previously we turned right on the far side to walk along Dobb Edge, but today we turned left following the way-marked route to Hob Hurst's House.
This is a concessionary footpath, and as such not shown on the maps, including the 1:25,000 ones, even as a physical path, so you are reliant on following the way-mark posts, albeit the map above will act as an overview.
The initial leg is across the hill slope before dropping into a steeply sloped valley, where we stayed high up away from the brook, before breaking away onto flatter ground.
We followed this to the graveled vehicle track where it crosses the Emperor Stream.
This is an aqueduct that traverses the hillside before cutting round the end of the ridge and across the reverse slope until it reaches the Emperor Lake. It takes water from the Umberley Brook, and anything else that drains into it along the way, to the Emperor Lake where it is then used in the Chatsworth House Emperor Fountain. A remarkable feat of surveying and engineering.
NB, the OS 1:50,000 scale mapping does not show the correct route of the stream.
We turned right and followed the track uphill around the edge of Gibbet Moor and Bunkers Hill Wood to the top of the hill at the NE start of Harland Edge. Bit of a slog on the gravel, but the track turned grassy along the wood making for more pleasant walking, especially for the dog.
Once we reached the end of the wood it was just a matter of a few metres to reach the small enclosure holding Hob Hurst's House.
This is a unique Bronze Age barrow, unique because it is rectangular rather than the more usual circular shape, and was the first ancient monument to be protected in law.
Named after Hob o'the Hurst, who local legend says was either an elf, hobgoblin or giant that lived in the local woodlands! More likely a local farmer! Google will throw up any number of sites with more information than I care to repeat here.
From the House we dropped down the end of Hartland Edge following the edge of the private woodland before following the path to another vehicle track that traverses Rabbit Warren and enters Stand Wood, which covers the hill behind Chatsworth House.
Previously we followed tracks through the wood that took us to Swiss and Emperor Lakes, but this time we followed one that followed the edge and allowed us to peek out at the view from the top of the Cascade, before leading past the Hunting Tower and onto Dobb Edge where we made our way back to the Robin Hood, admiring the display made by the rowan trees and their red berries.

Date Walked: 09Sep13
Distance: 7.1 miles
Time: 3h12m
Ascent: 888'
Descent: 884'

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Points to note

• These walks are listed as a record of walks that we have done. If you wish to follow them then you do so at your own risk.
• Distances given are those recorded on our GPS as Track Distance.
  Actual distance walked may be slightly longer, due to the way that the two distances are calculated. This article explains why.
• Times given may or may not include breaks.
• You'd expect on a circular walk that the Ascent and Descent values would be the same, right?
  Well, yes, but sometimes I didn't stop the track at the exact same place I started it, and also sometimes it takes a while to get a strong enough 3D fix for a reasonably accurate altitude setting.
• Any photos shown will be of the ground covered by the walk, but may cover more than one visit.