Ashbourne To Carsington Water

Okay, so this walk can start anywhere within Ashbourne really, but for simplicity, we're going to start at the Shawcroft Car Park (this is the big one next to the Co-op and Boots). From there, you're going to head back out of the car park - over the traffic lights, and into the park (where the bandstand is).

From here, head towards the building in the distance, and there's a cut-through to the next field where the Pavillion is. You're then going to walk to the Pavillion, keep going, keeping left until you see the cut through to the next field.

From that field, you should see another cut-through on the other side which once you go through it, should bring you to a forest.

You should pick up a footpath here, that you can follow. It's generally pretty unkempt, so be prepared to hack through the wilderness, but this route is so quiet that it's worth doing it. Once you're out of the forest, you should be greeted by some big ol' open fields. At the time we did this walk, there were buttercups everywhere, and no livestock. Can't guarantee that'll be the case all year (definitely not on the buttercups either way), but keep following this path until you get to what looks like a real road.

(Here's a bonus pic of the dogs)

When you get to the dirt/gravel road, you should see directly in front of you, over the road, another path. Head down there and you'll be greeted by more fields. Keep walking through them, you're heading towards Kniveton.

You'll eventually come out of the other side of the fields and be greeted by a wooden signpost at a triangular junction on a road. You can try and delve through the sketchy fields over the road like we did, but honestly it's not worth it, the paths are so wild that it's borderline dangerous.

Head right, and stick to the road, you'll come to another junction just down the road, turn left and follow it until you get to a right hand bend, you should see a gravel road on your left, head down that path until you get to a bridge. Just over the bridge, there are a couple of paths, you want the one that is marked as a public footpath.

Keep following the path, you'll take this path all the way to Atlow, if you start to get lost, just keep following the river as it runs too the way to Atlow.

Once in Atlow, we stopped at the tree in the middle of the roundabout and just took it in, it's a quaint little village and it's basically silent, just wind blowing and river bubbling, so I'd suggest doing the same thing if you fancy a quick break.

From here, head left, out of the village up Jolly Lane (what a name for a road), just past the last house on your left, there's another footpath that will take you to Atlow Mill, when you get to the mill, you'll see the river, head over the river via the bridge.

This is where it starts to get a bit woolly, head over the hill, you're basically just heading in the direction of Hognaston now, when we went the public footpaths weren't great so there was some scrambling n rambling required. You should see Hognaston in the distance, it's the only village visible.

Once you've gotten to the village, the Red Lion is here, definitely worth a stop in if you're also parched. Quaint old English pub with a great landlord. They also do food, but we didn't partake in that, but it was nice to sit outside.

There's also a really short church:

After this, this is as sketchy as it gets. Head out of Hognaston, up the hill. Just past the pub, take the next right, and head down the road right to the bottom and follow it round to the left. Now, there are signs saying that it's not a public footpath, but OS Maps says it is, so not sure what the crack is here, and there are other public footpath signs further down.

At the end of the field, there's a metal turnstile, the paths here were wild when we did this, so be prepared for that. Once you get out of the other side, keep an eye out for all of the signs for non-footpaths. The farmer that found us when we got lost was great, but his fellow farmers weren't, as the kids say, best pleased that we'd wandered up the wrong way. Note to the farmers actually - less signs about where the footpath is not, more signs about where it actually is would be helpful.

And that's it! Follow the footpaths all the way to the Carsington Water's visitor centre. Whilst you're there, the overpriced ice cream is worth a go, and the cafe downstairs does some fairly decent looking munch, but the prices are, as you would expect, naff.

There's a bus that runs from Carsington back to Ashbourne a couple of times a day (the one we caught was at 18:10) so we spent a couple of hours at Carsington.

Monte doesn't like moving vehicles: