Not far from Blacka Moor and very popular is the walk from Burbage Bridge car park. It's got some fine features including plenty of fresh air, good climbing sites and a clear view of Carl Wark and Higger Tor. But almost every time I visit I am disappointed and come away thinking it has lots of potential that some day may be realised. I have always preferred Blacka Moor.
The high path today over the edge smelled depressingly of sheep's urine despite the breeze. The plantation below has never looked attractive with its unnatural arrangement of trees in straight lines: why is it taking so long for something to be done about this? Is it simply that those with the power to act have just not got the vision to see what it could become? And why, oh why does the vegetation have to be so unremittingly predictable? Bilberry exists here among the heather but don't come along with any containers to pick fruit - it's all cropped to within an inch of the ground by the sheep. Local conservation types have developed a defensive cum sentimental attachment to the woolly mowers.
Bilberry that will never fruit.
Those who claim that livestock grazing helps to prevent bracken getting a hold should be forced to come here and below Stanage Edge where sheep and bracken between them reign supreme. Just below the trig station at the highest point of Stanage is an ideal spot for a picnic with an excellent view and sheltered at the back by cliffs. Very romantic, except there is not an inch that's unpolluted by sheep droppings and the smell is akin to a sewer.
If you turn to look behind you on your walk over Burbage Edge you can see one of the great wastelands of the region. Such a sight brings tears of joy to the eyes of all supporters of English Nature's moorland conservation strategy- those very people who wish to eliminate the trees on Blacka Moor.
Can we really have any hope that those who find this appealing will raise a finger to resist a line of pylons or a wind farm?
