Aircraft Hunting – Peak District

Sunday afternoon, all chores done, the weather looks OK, so what better than spending a few hours in the glorious surrounds of the Peak District National Park, hunting for aircraft wrecks.

Disclosure time here, I already knew how to locate two out of the three wrecks, but having seen a recent post on Instagram identifying a wreck that I did not know about, the ‘pull’ to go and test the navigational prowess was too much for me to contain!

So that’s it, we’re out to play on a slightly overcast Sunday afternoon.

Starting from Old Glossop a quick dash up alongside the Blakemoor plantation followed by a slightly a further 130 meters of climbing and the first location was secured. Cock hill Trig appeared to have been overrun by some very berry cocky Jelly babies!

Next stop, the Bristol Blenheim L1476, located on Sykes Moor, Bleaklow.

The route from Cock Hill Trig to the spot height along Glossop low passed in a flash, and I was quickly descending toward the Pennine way along Clough Edge.

Turn Right along Clough Edge and the next objective was the big Left turn at Wildboar Grain. It was quickly arrived at and now I took my time just to collect my thoughts about the next important aspect of this short hop, that being, locating the contour at 530M and determining how far North along this contour I needed to travel to hit the objective.

If you know the Peak District at all, you will completely understand how difficult this potentially can be, largely due the vast number and scale of peak Groughs which litter the Moors. Sykes Moor is no different and I was quickly encountering plenty of ups and down across the contour line.

First wreck found, time to head for ‘Over Exposed’ which is located in close proximity to the Trig at Higher Shelf Stones. The weather had changed from being quite humid to fine drizzle which had the effect of rinsing the sweat off my head into my eyes, deep joy!

After wiping the sweat from my eyes and recovering some degree of sight I pushed hard across the Moor to relocate the Pennine way and use this as my handrail to locate Wain Stones. I managed to disturb a huge mountain hare along the way, if only I could cover the Moors as quickly as they can, they are always just so impressive to see as they gallop off into the distance!

Flashing past Wain stones, head down, I pressed hard onwards across the bog that is Shelf Moss and whistled passed Hern Stones, disturbing a resting hawk along the way. Too quick for me to capture on the camera I just had to stand and watch its graceful flight off the stones and away into the distance, stunning!

Next Objective B29 Over Exposed achieved, with two quick pictures, one being with the OS Locate app’ and I was already looking for my route off to the final Objective for today’s little outing.

Its just a short(ish) downhill hop from Higher Shelf Stones across Shelf Moor and up onto James Thorn.

This site is quite interesting in that it has two plaques in memory of two different aircraft incidents. But today I wanted to capture the plaque for Lancaster KB993 which crashed on 18^th May 1945.

Job done, all I needed to do is safely get myself off James Thorn and down to the track alongside Mossy Lea Farm to head back to the car.

Summary.

Two Trig points

Three Aircraft sites

• Bristol Blenheim L1476
• B29 Superfortress Over Exposed
• Lancaster KB993

One Mountain Hare

One Sparrow Hawk

18KMs in the bag.

Some good contour navigation practice

Another great day out, time for a beer.

Martin