The ruins are directly over
the mouth of the hole on the hill, which extends itself some
distance over the cavern beyond the ruins, and always widens, though
here in front it is so narrow that the building takes up the whole.
From the ruins all around there is nothing but steep rock, so that
there is no access to it but from the town, where a crooked path
from the foot of the hill is hewn in the rock, but is also
prodigiously steep.
The spot on which the ruins stand is now all overgrown with nettles
and thistles. Formerly, it is said, there was a bridge from this
mountain to the opposite one, of which one may yet discover some
traces, as in the vale which divides the two rocks we still find the
remains of some of the arches on which the bridge rested. This
vale, which lies at the back of the ruins and probably over the
cavern, is called the Cave's Way, and is one of the greatest
thoroughfares to the town. In the part at which, at some distance,
it begins to descend between these two mountains, its descent is so
gentle that one is not at all tired in going down it; but if you
should happen to miss the way between the two rocks and continue on
the heights, you are in great danger of falling from the rock, which
every moment becomes steeper and steeper.
The mountain on which the ruins stand is everywhere rocky. The one
on the left of it, which is separated by the vale, is perfectly
verdant and fertile, and on its summit the pasture hands are divided
by stones, piled up in the form of a wall. This green mountain is
at least three times as high as that on which the ruins stand.
I began to clamber up the green mountain, which is also pretty
steep; and when I had got more than half way up without having once
looked back, I was nearly in the same situation as the adventurer
who clambered up Mam Tor Hill, for when I looked round, I found my
eye had not been trained to view, unmoved, so prodigious a height.
Castleton with the surrounding country lay below me like a map, the
roofs of the houses seemed almost close to the ground, and the
mountain with the ruins itself seemed to be lying at my feet.
I grew giddy at the prospect, and it required all my reason to
convince me that I was in no danger, and that, at all events, I
could only scramble down the green turf in the same manner as I had
got up.
