Helen Stephenson's Derbyshire Break Pictures - December, 2005 - Castleton Countryside

I took the pictures on this page on the same day as we visited Treak Cliff Cavern. To get to the cavern, it was necessary to climb quite a few steps up a steep hillside, and as I didn't want to have to carry my tripod around inside the cavern, I left it in the car.

The height gained by climbing all those steps turned out to afford a very good view of the surrounding countryside between Castleton and Treak Cliff, and I regretted not having my tripod, but didn't regret it enough to want to climb all those steps a second time over, so I compromised and set my camera's sensitivity to ISO800 and took my landscape pictures hand-held.

The first two pictures actually come from the same image. I thought it looked good as it came out of the camera, with the hill behind Castleton; and also trimmed down a bit to exclude the hill and also the cement works!

I zoomed in a bit closer to Castleton for the next picture.

The next two pictures were taken zoomed in even closer. The picture on the left shows some countryside to the side of the village, while the one on the right gives another view of the line of trees in front of the village. They were taken a lot earlier than the previous pictures. The bonfire must have gone out while we were in Treak Cliff Cavern!

I also turned my lens towards the countryside nearer to my vantage point on the steps leading to Treak Cliff Cavern. The first picture shows a field with a shelter used by a donkey. The donkey must have very sensibly decided to go inside and get out of the cold of a somewhat uncertain December afternoon, as he or she missed out on getting in my picture!

Finally, I've included some views of the farm which could be seen in the foreground of the very first pictures on this page.