We’re just back from a week in the Peak District. An upland area in the midlands UK, not quite ‘the north’ but very close. We based ourselves near Leek in the south west corner of the district and stayed in an Air BnB property that was a converted dairy in a rural location.

We’ve made a conscious decision to explore more of the UK now that we’re retired and chose to visit the Peak District as neither of us had visited the area before. Prior to travelling I’d bought an OS Pathfinder book of circular walks in the area. I don’t pre plan the walks before we go but base our decisions on the weather and how far we feel like driving day to day.

One visit I had planned, whilst we were near Cheshire, was the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a huge radio telescope. You can visit the observatory grounds but they don’t permit dogs on the site so we drove and wandered the local lanes looking for viewpoints to take a few pics. As it was, we were able to get quite close and the image below was taken with a 105mm lens, on my full frame Sony A7 with no cropping.

We stayed local on our first morning, visiting a local reservoir for a pleasant five mile walk before driving on across the dales, to the town of Bakewell in Derbyshire, famous for being the home of the Bakewell Tart. It’s an historic market town and very picturesque. Of course that means other tourists, just like us, and it was busy. We spent a nice afternoon exploring the town and local market and of course, we tried a Bakewell Tart whilst we were in Bakewell.

For our first longer hike we picked off an eight mile circular walk around an area known as The Roaches, not too far from where we were staying. The start point was a thirty minute drive from the cottage and the walk took in Danesbridge, before climbing up over a ridge into a narrow chasm known as Luds Church.

This was a lovely circular walk, following a river through woodland before the terrain became more rugged and then dropped into Luds Church chasm. The views across the dales were fantastic as we climbed up onto the ridge and the chasm was interesting. Just lovely walking country. We mark our walks in our Pathfinder books and we both agreed that this was an 8/10 hike for us.

Our next walk was longer. A good nine mile walk from Ladybower Reservoir, climbing up onto Win Hill. From the peak of the hill the route follows a Roman road, dropping to the far end of the reservoir before turning back along the waters edge to the start point.

The reservoir itself is a popular attraction and the area around the dam was quite busy. However having crossed the dam we left everyone else behind as we started climbing through a pine plantation towards the summit of Win Hill.

We spent some time on the top of Win Hill just taking in the views which were spectacular in every direction. The guide book had promised these views and they didn’t disappoint. We left the summit from the opposite side of our initial climb. The descent was far more gradual than the climb, on a well kept track following the old Roman road. We followed this part of the route for a couple of miles before turning at an 18th-centuary waymark at a junction of ancient trails.

From here we dropped steeply to the edge of the reservoir and then made our way back to the dam. The walk after the top of Win Hill was a bit bland and samey for us. Overall as a walk it’s worth taking on for the views at the top of Win Hill, but overall we marked this one as a 7/10.

For our third and final longer hike we stayed a bit more local to the cottage again. We drove out to the the small village of Grindon for a walk along the River Hamps in the Manifold Valley. We parked in a small car park next to All Saints Church. The origins of the church date from Saxon times in the 11th-centuary.

From the church we made our way across lovely countryside before dropping towards the foot of Manifold Valley, where we picked up a footpath that was originally a railway line, following the course of the river Hamps. At this point we took a slight detour to climb up and view Thors cave. A great gap in the limestone cliff.

From the cave we followed a good track through the valley following the old railway line. The river was bone dry and we didn’t see anything but the river bed along the miles we followed this track. The return route climbs back up out of the valley and follows glorious undulating countryside, through a patchwork of drystone walled pastures. A really pleasant countryside walk we marked as a 7/10.

We decided to take a break from walking on our last day in the Peak District and took a drive into Leek, the closest town to the cottage. Leek was a nice surprise and we really enjoyed browsing the old market square and quirky shops around the town centre. We stopped for a coffee and Eccles cake before we left and returned to the cottage to pack for home.

We really enjoyed the Peak District and the cottage was a perfect base for our week. We were blessed with good weather, always a bonus, but there’s lots to discover here. I think if we come back I’d stay more towards the North Easterly side of the area as there’s lots more to discover here.

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All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.