My Peak District Highlights

BAKEWELL: Not just puddings and tarts. A substantial town with plenty of shops, and the unofficial capital of the Peak District. I love the many courtyards, Bath Gardens, and the waterfront walk.

BLEAKLOW:  Appropriately named - it's bleak up there. It's the largest continuous expanse of land over two thousand foot above sea level in England. There are several dozen aircraft wrecks if you want to go looking for them, it will be a test of your mapreading skills though because there aren't a lot of landmarks around.

CASTLETON: Tourist village at the head of the Hope Valley; there's everything you need, pubs and restaurants, gift shops, show caves, a museum, and a castle.

CHATSWORTH PARK: Easy, but quite varied walking; suitable for family days out.

CINTRA'S TEAROOMS, HATHERSAGE: Everyone has a favourite, and this is mine.

EYAM: Known as 'The Plague Village.' Plenty of history here and some nice walks in the area.

KINDER SCOUT: The highest point in the Peak District, slightly higher than Bleaklow. No aircraft wrecks but plenty of interesting rock formations.

LONGSHAW ESTATE: Easy to reach from Sheffield, it's less than half an hour on the bus. Regular organised events for visitors.

LUMSDALE: A steep valley with several ruined mills; weirs, waterfalls and extensive walkways. Excellent opportunities for photography. 

MATLOCK BATH: Known as 'Derbyshire-by-the-Sea.' Tourist shops, more fish and chips shops than anywhere else I've been, a cable car ride, and on Sundays and Bank Holidays hundreds of motorcyclists travel here. 

MONSAL HEAD: Classic Peak District view looking down at the Headstone Viaduct.

THE GREAT RIDGE: A fantastic walk of about two miles with extensive views down into both the Hope Valley and the Vale of Edale.

TIDESWELL: A large village in the heart of the White Peak area - a good base for walking in some of the nearby limestone dales.

Lumsdale, Tansley, Riber, Hearthstone, Cromford, and Matlock Bath

I thought I might have been alone at Lumsdale for the first time this morning until a family joined me. I was able to quickly get away from them though and have the waterfalls, the ruins, the weirs, the walkways...and the magic of this place...all to myself for about half an hour.

I walked across the fields to Tansley and took a few photographs of the church there; it's not very old.

I then needed to walk through the village and along the main road at the bottom of the valley for a few minutes before taking the footpath up and over to Riber. There are several quite theatrically gothic looking houses here; I couldn't get a close up view of the castle though [it's a Victorian folly.]

It was only a short walk down to the hamlet of Hearthstone and then across the fields to Cromford Mill. There is some lovely rolling green countryside here, but on a quite murky day it was difficult for me to get any decent photographs.

The first thing I photographed at Cromford was the church, it too isn't very old. I arrived at just after one o'clock and there was a sign outside stating that the building is open to the public every Saturday from eleven o'clock until one o'clock. The door was open, so I ventured inside. There wasn't a lot to look at inside, but there is some quite nice painted plaster on the walls.

The mill at Cromford is a bit of a disappointment; I think they could do so much more with it.

I found a path that goes through the woods to come out at Masson Mill at the southern end of Matlock Bath. As I walked along the promenade I decided to count the number of fish and chips shops - there are nine of them.There are also nearly as many tearooms, several pubs and plenty of ice cream parlours and amusement arcades - in fact everything you'd expect to find at a coastal resort. Matlock Bath certainly lives up to its nickname of 'Derbyshire-by-the-Sea' - even though it's many miles from the sea.

I din't stay long because I wanted to catch the next TransPeak service to Bakewell...and then a bus from there to Sheffield. I had enough time to pop in to the artisan market and buy I large summer fruits scone for my tea though.

The 15:05 bus at Bakewell didn't turn up and then the next one, the 15:24 was a few minutes late. At the Golden Gates roundabout at Baslow we saw the missing earlier bus had broken down, right in the most inconvenient place where it was blocking the traffic.