The Peak District: Edges, Caverns and Country Houses

Editor's note

Two nights at Castleton, under Mam Tor. Walk into Peak Cavern, whose entrance is the largest in Britain; ropemakers lived and worked inside it until 1915. Climb Mam Tor to 517m, walk the Iron Age ramparts and look at the landslip that closed the A625 in 1979, then walk the broken road below. Buy a piece of Blue John, the purple and yellow fluorspar found only in the mines beneath this valley. At Hathersage, climb or walk under Stanage Edge, the gritstone escarpment above the village, see North Lees Hall, the model for Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, and walk the National Trust moorland and woodland of the Longshaw Estate.

Editor's note

Two nights near Bakewell. Chatsworth, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, has belonged to the Cavendish family since 1549: tour the house, then walk the gardens and the park beside the Derwent. Five kilometres west, Bakewell crosses the Wye on a five-arched bridge of the 13th century, and it is the place to eat a Bakewell pudding. Give a day to the Monsal Trail, 8.5 miles of the old Midland Railway from Topley Pike to Coombs Viaduct, on foot or by bike. It crosses the Headstone Viaduct below Monsal Head, passes Cressbrook and Litton mills, and runs through six tunnels reopened in 2011.

Editor's note

Two nights at Matlock. In Matlock Bath, the spa village Byron compared with Switzerland, a cable car has crossed the Derwent gorge since 1984 to the Heights of Abraham on Masson Hill. Go down into the Great Masson or Great Rutland Cavern, both old lead and fluorspar mines, and climb the Victoria Prospect Tower of 1844. Each autumn the Venetian Nights light the river with illuminated boats. At Cromford, walk the yard of Richard Arkwright's mill of 1771, the world's first water-powered cotton-spinning mill, then see Jedediah Strutt's North Mill downstream at Belper. The mills from Cromford to Derby have been a World Heritage Site since 2001.

Editor's note

The last two nights are around Buxton, whose spring rises at a steady 28°C and was dedicated to St Anne by 1460. Taste the water at St Ann's Well, opposite the Crescent John Carr built in the 1780s, see Frank Matcham's Opera House of 1903, walk the Pavilion Gardens and go underground in Poole's Cavern. Give a day to the south-west edge of the Peak District: walk the gritstone ridge of the Roaches to find the Winking Man, walk to Thor's Cave in its limestone cliff above the Manifold Valley, or cycle the Manifold Trail along the old railway. The market town of Leek lies between them.