St Paul's Rambling Group Heaton Moor

A lovely walk, but the blustery wind and the rain ever present in the air did its best to put us off. However the intrepid walkers from St Paul’s donned boots, rain jackets scarves and hats and set off from the car park near the museum. In the event, the solid downpours on the Manchester side of the Pennines left us alone. Eyam is often referred to as the Plague Village. During the 17th century the villagers isolated themselves from the outside world as they were decimated by the dreadful disease that killed off whole families in quick succession. We saw the evidence of this as soon as we began to walk through the village as too many of the 17th century cottages have plaques listing the names of those who had died. The walk took us out to the east of the village up a steep quiet road until we reached more open country. We were rewarded with wonderful views but also with the bleakness and isolation of the Riley Graves. As we began our descent to the River Derwent we could see C...