The best places in the Peak District
The Peak District is a national park with a split personality. In some places it is an untouched Arcadia of leafy dales, blustery heaths and tumbling streams. In others, the land is crisscrossed by railway lines, its hillsides quarried and rivers dotted with mills. In the 19th century, the area was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, and some of England’s mightiest cities encircle the park today.
The Peak is at its most beautiful, however, where these works of man and nature combine: be it Chatsworth House, presiding over parkland, the railway viaduct in the woods at Monsal Head, or villages such as Edale and Ashford in the Water that gracefully inhabit the Derbyshire landscape. Contrary to popular belief, Peak doesn’t refer to hills but supposedly derives from the Peaklanders, an Anglo-Saxon tribe. Ancient traces only serve to augment the region’s beauty, with prehistoric monuments evoking local myths and forests steeped in legends of Robin Hood. These are some of the most beautiful spots in the Peak District to explore.
Getty ImagesMonsal Dale
When it was built in 1863, the Headstone Viaduct was seen as an act of desecration wrought on the Derbyshire countryside, with cultural critic John Ruskin claiming the new railway had murdered the majesty and magic of Monsal Dale. Opinions have changed since then and the bridge is now a much-cited example of architecture in union with landscape, its stony spans swooping over a rushing river flanked by ash woods. The viaduct no longer rumbles under passing trains; instead it forms part of the Monsal Trail, with cyclists pedalling through the tunnels and cuttings between the towns of Bakewell and Buxton.
AlamyChatsworth
For some, the mention of Chatsworth conjures up the honey-hued façade flecked by the spray of the Emperor Fountain; for others it is the house framed by a bridge over the River Derwent, huddled under a forested escarpment. Praised by Wordsworth and sketched by Turner, this is the king of English country houses. While you could lose a day exploring its state rooms and admiring the Old Masters that line the walls, what's most memorable is how naturally the estate blends with the surrounding landscape. For a different perspective, follow the trails to the 16th-century Hunting Tower which overlooks the park. chatsworth.org
AlamyAshford-in-the-Water
Ashford has all the aspects of an idyllic English village: cottage gardens, a grand manor house and an ancient stone bridge for games of Pooh sticks in the river. It's also one of the few Derbyshire villages that maintains the custom of well dressing, in which its six wells are decorated with flowers and blessed during a procession on Trinity Sunday – believed by some to echo a pagan rite honouring water deities. Alternatively make your own procession to Ashford's other watering holes such as The Bulls Head, a 17th-century coaching inn. robinsonsbrewery.com
AlamyHaddon Hall
Just as Chatsworth is England's most palatial country home, Haddon Hall might be its most mysteriously beautiful. It’s a higgledy-piggledy manor house whose ancient aspect owes much to the fact the family lost interest and lived elsewhere between the 18th and 20th centuries – leaving its interior sublimely preserved in time. If the medieval banqueting hall and the Tudor Long Gallery look familiar, it might be because Haddon Hall is a regular on the silver screen: it has appeared in The Princess Bride, Pride and Prejudice and no less than three adaptations of Jane Eyre. haddonhall.co.uk
Getty ImagesEdale
This village stands at the start of the Pennine Way – the long-distance path that winds 268 miles northwards to the Scottish border. You could be forgiven for putting off the epic march, and instead bide your time in this cluster of hamlets, cottages and farms set under Derbyshire’s loftiest hills. The friendly and strikingly designed Moorland Centre offers an excellent introduction to the ecology of local uplands – otherwise slog up to the summit of Mam Tor and descend for a pint at the Old Nags Head, which traces its origins to 1577. the-old-nags-head.co.uk
Buxton Crescent Hotel
Spa town Buxton may not officially be part of the Peak District, instead it is flanked on all sides by it, as though in embrace. Buxton Crescent Hotel, therefore, the unmissable Neoclassical Georgian landmark from fifth Duke of Devonshire William Cavendish that curls around the heart of the town, makes for a beautiful pit-stop on any Peaks itinerary. Following its former life as two grandiose hotels, a stint of disrepair around the 1980s and, crucially, a recent £70 million renovation, it is now one super long, super curvy digs, finished with chic, light-handed design and teeming with chandeliers, free-standing tubs and deep, soul-soothing four-posters. The restaurant is hushed but friendly and serves the finer things, such as lobster ravioli, roast duckling and devilish chocolate bombs. But it’s the spa and pools that bump Buxton Crescent to world-class – hardly a surprise, given the fact that it is the first hotel in the UK to be managed by European spa specialists Ensana. A labyrinth of indoor and outdoor pools – with one even straddling both – and steamy, pore-powing rooms featuring a knock-out stained-glass atrium and shimmering bronze mosaics, they’re an aesthetic as well as physical delight. Be sure to book a thermal water treatment before you arrive as they are, unsurprisingly, extremely popular. Also don’t forget to fill as many bottles from St Ann’s Well opposite as you can on your way out, just like the locals have been doing since around 80 AD – the mineral water, fresh from the Peaks, really does taste better here. Becky Lucas
AlamyKinder Downfall
Kinder Scout is the vast plateau that dominates the north of the Peak District: on its western flank is the Kinder Downfall which sends gallons of icy Pennine rainwater crashing down to the world below. On windy days, the spray is known to fly into the face of passing hikers, while in winter it sometimes ices over completely. The strenuous hike to the waterfall takes you through some of the wildest corners of the national park – either follow the Pennine Way west from Edale, or bear east from Hayfield as views of Greater Manchester unravel behind you.
Getty ImagesHathersage
For those driving west out of Sheffield, Hathersage offers a glorious introduction to Peak District villages: there's a handsome stone high street, a medieval church – beneath which Robin Hood's colleague, Little John, is supposedly buried – and trails departing for the blustery edges beyond. There's also a smattering of restaurants and pubs. The George Hotel is a worthy place to come in from the cold, with open fires, beamed ceilings and a little crenelated tower. Charlotte Brontë was a patron at the hotel and allegedly used Hathersage as inspiration for her novels. george-hotel.net
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AlamyBamford Edge
A rocky platform cantilevered over the landscape, Bamford Edge is a place where the Peak District unfurls at your feet – with a view north to the oakwoods along the Ladybower Reservoir, westwards to the crest of Win Hill, and south along the rooftops and chimneys of Hope Valley. It's quieter than the far more famous Stanage Edge, and easy to reach too: after a short uphill hike from New Road, take a two-mile circuit along the escarpment, watching sheep bobbing through the moorland and climbers on the crags below. Bamford village itself is also served by National Rail connections.
AlamyRobin Hood's Stride
The character may be synonymous with Nottinghamshire, but judging by local place names he at least spent his weekends in Derbyshire, with Robin Hood's Stoop and Robin Hood's Cave among local landmarks. The most stirring, however, is Robin Hood's Stride, a gritstone tor rising over the White Peak near Birchover, where legend has it Hood blithely skipped between the boulders. Today it makes for an eerie place to explore, far away from the tourist hordes. Nearby you'll find the Hermit’s Cave with its carved crucifix and a Bronze Age stone circle whose uprights are said to dance under moonlight.
Getty ImagesLathkill Dale
In a county known for wide-open moorlands and windswept hills, Lathkill Dale offers something different: a narrow, wooded gorge meandering from the village of Monyash to the Haddon Hall estate, an enclosed world where you often find yourself alone with the twittering of birdsong and the gurgle of the current. When it's raining, the River Lathkill springs dramatically out of a limestone cave – follow it five miles downstream to the hamlet of Alport, passing willows on the riverbank, mine buildings under the crags, and trout ponds where ducks and swans paddle crystal-clear waters.
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