Derbyshire Dales and Peak District – Fabulous Dales and Moorland Walking

Our base for this holiday is the Derbyshire Dales. We stay at Newton House Hotel, close to Dovedale. 

Accommodation is single en suite rooms – no sharing. Rooms have flat screen TVs as well as tea / coffee making facilities.

We eat evening dinner in the hotel’s restaurant – three courses. Dress code is smart casual

We have lunch at one of the Derbyshire Dales  lovely country pubs, Walking starts at 9.30 am, and we generally finish for that welcome cuppa at 4.30 pm. This will give you plenty of time to get ready for dinner.

Flexibility

We offer you the opportunity to stay additional nights, and many people extend their weekend as they wish. Just reserve what nights you need.

Directions to the hotel

Road

The best way is to head for Derby, then the A52 for Ashbourne. Here you take the A515 for Buxton, and 5 miles along this road, the hotel is located on the right hand side.

Rail

The nearest station is Buxton  – there is a regular bus service from the station to Ashbourne (Bus no 442) Mon – Sat only. Buses run at 25 minutes past every hour. This bus stops outside Newton House Hotel.

(Walking starts at 2.30pm on the Friday and finish around 3.30pm on the Sunday so wherever possible,  make sure your train times fit in with this schedule.)

Our Derbyshire Dales and Peak District weekend holidays start on Friday afternoons, our first walk starts at 2.30pm, a roughly two hour “get to know you” walk, with a cuppa at the end.  If you cannot make that walk, then we meet on Friday evening, at 7.00 pm, for a three-course dinner and a discussion on what we are doing during the weekend. 

We then walk on Saturday and finish on Sunday at approximately 4.30pm.

Our first walk is roughly half the distance covered during the full day walks, and will show you the lovely valley to the east of the hotel, plus and maybe pass through the villages of Alsop en le Dale and Parwich, although, if time allows, we may even visit the beautiful village of Tissington.  Sometimes we use a short stretch along the old Buxton to Ashbourne railway – the Tissington Trail.

Over the following two days, the walks will cover  9 to 10 miles taking in  an area to the west, centred around the lovely keynote location of Dovedale.  Other well-known dales we may pass through include Hall Dale, Milldale, Nabs Dale, Beresford Dale, and Wolfscote Dale, and we may even reach the lovely Manifold Valley on the Staffordshire border.  Each has its own particular features and beauty.

Sample Walks

The walks are chosen to show you a varied selection of the Derbyshire Dales and Peak District countryside, and we walk out from the hotel in a different direction each day.  We have a selection of walks that our leaders can choose from, and mostly we walk straight from the hotel, although on occasion, we may use a minibus.  This will allow us to reach a drop-off location for a linear walk back to the hotel, or to allow us to walk in an area further afield.  Some of these more distant locations may include Youlgrave, Bradford Dale, and historic Lathkill Dale.  Walks may be altered occasionally, due to weather conditions.

We reveal the beauty of the  Peak District terrain, with natural Limestone structures, rolling farmland, crystal clear trout streams, historical sites, and quaint villages where time seems to have stood still.

Walking grades and difficulty- Moderate grade

We walk at a steady pace and don’t rush, there’s too much to see and admire. Timings and routes can change, depending on weather conditions, or the walking ability of the group, although we try to maintain our estimated arrival time at pubs, and returns to the hotel.

During the walks, we use footpaths and bridleways, although we may have to walk short distances on country lanes.  Derbyshire has a good selection of stiles that allow passage over the beautiful dry-stone walls, and are of various shapes and sizes.  Grades are moderate and we walk at a pace designed to allow you to enjoy the walk, and maybe snap the occasional photograph. As always, we recommend suitable walking footwear, preferably boots, as the terrain can be very varied.

Exclusions

Although our leaders are well trained and experienced in dealing with different capabilities of our walking clients, if they have any concerns about any clients ability or suitability to undertake safely any walking activity we plan or they feel that participation of an individual may affect the groups safety and cohesion, then they have full permission to exclude that client from an activity.

They will try at all times to provide an alternative suggested activity, though this may involve the client in additional local cost.

We rarely have to enforce this above recommendation, but it is a sensible and necessary protection for the individual client, the group and the leaders.

Derbyshire and Peak District Dales- Water on Stone

The limestone dales found in Derbyshire and the Peak District are  cut by crystal clear rivers and  flanked by precipitous cliffs or pinnacles. Some like Dovedale and Lathkill are extremely popular and busy, especially on fine weekends. This is hardly surprising as they are both beautiful and very accessible. Queues form at the stepping stones near the southern end of Dovedale at peak times. Others are not so well known and others, perhaps not so accessible. Many of them are now ‘dry’, without rippling trout streams, but nevertheless still a delight to explore.

Dovedale
Dovedale in the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District, is owned by the National Trust and is farmed, with many sheep on the rocky slopes and in the woods. It is little more than 3 miles distance between Thorpe and Milldale in the north and the famous part is the wooded ravine between the stepping stones, a short distance from the car park at the front of Thorpe Cloud and the cave like Dove-holes. Dovedale`s stepping stones appear on thousands of post cards and the area attracts a million visitors a year. Keep away on sunny weekend afternoons.

Milldale, Wolfescote Dale, Biggin Dale and Beresford Dales

Part of the River Dove- each dale is different as the river cuts a swathe through the lovely upland countryside

Charming villages and bustling market towns

Within the Derbyshire Dales are several superb villages – Tissington with its well dressings and hall; Hartington – plenty of tea shops and a lovely village green; Youlgreave – stone and lead mining were original trades, now tourists flock there. Then there is Cromford where cotton spinning was invented;  Baslow, part of the Chatsworth estate and Beeley, with its imposing moor behind.

Ashbourne at the southern end of the Derbyshire Dales simply delights with its quaint streets and bustling market place. Buxton – take the waters – a spa town high up on the moors; Bakewell, famous for puddings, not tarts you know, with the lovely River Wye running through its centre; Matlock on the Derwent -a place of historic industrial significance along with Matlock Bath.

Don’t forget the well dressings – a unique Derbyshire Dales custom described here.

The true origins of Well Dressing are lost in the mists of time. According to many sources, it developed from a pagan custom of making sacrifice to the gods of wells and springs to ensure a continued supply of fresh water. Like many folk traditions, it was later adopted by the Christian Church as a way of giving thanks to God for His gift to us of water. Tradition has it that it took on a special significance in 17th century.