Tour Chatsworth House, the Cavendish seat since 1549

Walk the gardens and park beside the Derwent

Cross Bakewell's five-arched bridge over the Wye, built in the 13th century

Eat a Bakewell pudding in the town where it was created

Chatsworth, the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, has belonged to the Cavendish family since 1549; Bess of Hardwick began the first great house here in 1553, and the 4th Earl began rebuilding it in 1687. It stands on the east bank of the Derwent in parkland under wooded hills, with gardens remade by the 4th Duke in the 18th century. Four miles south-west, Bakewell, a market town since 1254, crosses the Wye on a five-arched bridge of the 13th century and is best known for its pudding.

Chatsworth and Bakewell: The Cavendish House and the Pudding Town

Chatsworth and Bakewell

Liverpool

Five nights in a loop from Liverpool through the Peak District: the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, the caves and Blue John of Castleton, Chatsworth, and Thor's Cave above the Manifold.

The Peak District from Liverpool

Bakewell

An eight-night route through the Peak District from Castleton to Buxton: Mam Tor and the caverns, Chatsworth and the Monsal Trail, Arkwright's mill at Cromford, and Buxton's warm spring.

The Peak District: Edges, Caverns and Country Houses

Walk or cycle the Monsal Trail, the old Midland Railway line through the Wye valley

Cross the Headstone Viaduct and look down on the Wye

Ride through the tunnels reopened in 2011

Look down on the viaduct from Monsal Head

Find Cressbrook Mill and Litton Mill beside the trail

The Midland Railway built its line through the Wye valley in 1863 to link Manchester with London, and after it closed in 1968 the trackbed became the Monsal Trail, opened in 1981: 8.5 miles from Topley Pike, east of Buxton, to Coombs Viaduct beyond Bakewell, past Chee Dale, Millers Dale, Cressbrook and Monsal Dale. It crosses the Headstone Viaduct below Monsal Head, passes Cressbrook and Litton mills, and runs through six tunnels, reopened to walkers and cyclists in 2011.

The Monsal Trail: Headstone Viaduct and the Tunnels of the Wye

Ride the Heights of Abraham cable car across the Derwent gorge

Go down into the Great Masson or Great Rutland Cavern, old lead and fluorspar mines

Climb the Victoria Prospect Tower of 1844

Walk the riverside in Matlock Bath, the spa village Byron compared with Switzerland

Matlock Bath grew up as a spa in the Derwent gorge in the 19th century; Byron compared it with alpine Switzerland, which is how it got the nickname Little Switzerland. Above the village the Heights of Abraham is a hilltop park on Masson Hill, reached since 1984 by cable car across the river, with two old lead and fluorspar mines to go down into, the Great Masson and Great Rutland Caverns, and the Victoria Prospect Tower, built in 1844. Every autumn the Venetian Nights light up the river with illuminated boats.

Matlock Bath: The Heights of Abraham

Visit Cromford Mills, Richard Arkwright's mill of 1771, the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill

Explore William Strutt's North Mill in Belper, rebuilt in 1804, part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site listed in 2001

Walk round the mill yard at Cromford and find out how the factory system started here

In 1771 Richard Arkwright began the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill at Cromford, and the Derwent valley became the birthplace of the factory system. Downstream at Belper, Jedediah Strutt's mills carried it on; the North Mill that stands today was rebuilt by his son William in 1804 as one of the first iron-framed fireproof mills. The mills from Matlock Bath to Derby became a World Heritage Site in 2001.

Cromford and Belper: Where the Factory Began

Climb or walk under Stanage Edge, the gritstone escarpment above Hathersage

See North Lees Hall below Stanage Edge from the footpath, the house thought to have inspired Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre

Walk the Longshaw Estate, National Trust moorland and woodland

Stanage Edge is the long gritstone escarpment above Hathersage. Below it, North Lees Hall is thought to have inspired Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, and east of the village, above Padley Gorge, the Longshaw Estate is National Trust moorland and woodland.

Stanage Edge and Hathersage: The House Behind Thornfield

Walk into the entrance of Peak Cavern, the largest cave entrance in Britain — described by William Camden in 1586 as the Devil's Arse, and one of Thomas Hobbes's Seven Wonders of the Peak in 1636; ropemakers lived and worked inside it until 1915

From the summit of Mam Tor (517m), walk the ramparts of the hill fort and look down on the landslips of the eastern face — the Shivering Mountain — which closed the A625 road for good in 1979

In Castleton, find a piece of Blue John, mined for ornaments in the 19th century and still dug on a small scale

Walk the broken road under Mam Tor that the landslip destroyed

Castleton sits under Mam Tor at the head of the Hope Valley with four show caves around it. Peak Cavern, described by William Camden in 1586, has the largest cave entrance in Britain; Mam Tor above it is crowned by a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort and slides steadily downhill, taking the old road with it; and Blue John, the banded purple and yellow fluorite, is found in Britain only at the Blue John and Treak Cliff caverns here.

Castleton: Peak Cavern, Mam Tor and Blue John

Walk the gritstone ridge of The Roaches, then find the Winking Man on nearby Ramshaw Rocks, the rock that seems to wink at drivers on the A53

Walk to Thor's Cave in the Manifold Valley, the cave mouth in the limestone cliff

Cycle the Manifold Way, the 8-mile path on the old Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway

On the south-west edge of the Peak District, The Roaches are a gritstone ridge, and just east of them on Ramshaw Rocks is the Winking Man, a rock that seems to wink at drivers on the A53. To the south-east, Thor's Cave opens in a limestone cliff above the Manifold Valley, where the Manifold Way follows the old railway line, and the market town of Leek lies below The Roaches to the south-west.

The Roaches and the Manifold Valley: Thor's Cave

Go through the Museum of Making, on the site of Lombe's silk mill of 1721, probably the first fully mechanised factory in the world

Find out why the Silk Mill is the southern end of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site

Look up at Derby Cathedral's tower of 1510–32 and find the twelve grotesque animals on top

Look inside the nave James Gibbs rebuilt in 1725

Lombe's silk mill of 1721 on the Derwent in Derby was probably the first fully mechanised factory in the world, and its site marks the southern end of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Little of the original mill survives, but the museum on its site reopened after a £17 million redevelopment on 21 May 2021 as the Museum of Making. A few steps away, the tower of Derby Cathedral was built in 1510–32 in the Perpendicular style, 212 feet high, with twelve grotesque animals round its top; James Gibbs rebuilt the rest of the church in 1725.