On August 9th, 2016; I hiked the Roaches in England.   The Roaches are located between Leek, in Staffordshire, and Buxton, Derbyshire.

     Below, my selfie is of, “The Roaches”. The Roaches form a gritstone escarpment of unusually shaped rocks that mark the southwestern border of the Peak-District National Park.

     “The Roaches” consist of two jagged ridges—a Lower and Upper Tier—connected by a set of rock-steps.

     “The Roaches” were created 350 million years ago when a shallow sea allowed sand and grit to build up over a coral reef that once covered this area. These sediments were compressed over time into solid rocks that are free of faults. 

          The ice age and thousands of years of weathering have worn the rugged rocks into a fantastic eye-catching assemblage.

     The Roaches are in a fine position, with superb views of the Cheshire Plain and the Peak District.  The surrounding moorland was some excellent hiking territory.

     Nearby, a few kilometers west of the Roaches, I visited the archeological site of the Bridestones.  The Bridestones is a chambered cairn, near Congleton, Cheshire, England, that was constructed in the Neolithic period about 3500–2400 BC.

     The cairn originally had a stone circle surrounding it, with four portal stones; two of these portal stones still remain.  These Bridestones represent the burial places of localized early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape.  The Bridestones appear to have been used for the burial of only certain privileged members of the community, often with only partial human remains selected for interment. It is probable, therefore, that these monuments acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time.