70 Best Days Out in the Peak District
The Peak District National Park was founded on 17 April 1951, the first national park ever to be created in the UK. It covers 555 square miles of the most beautiful parts of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and even parts of Greater Manchester.
To celebrate the 70th birthday of our very favourite place, we’ve collected together what we consider to be the 70 Best Days Out in the Peak District to inspire you to visit more of this wonderful area. Have a browse through our collection below to get suggestions for entirely new spots to discover, or to remind yourself to revisit old favourites.
You’ll find all the region’s best attractions in here, as well as the most popular beauty spots and a few hidden gems as well, not to mention some wonderful little villages and many of the vibrant towns on the borders.
Join us in celebrating the very best that the Peak District has to offer, not just in this special birthday year but in every year to come!
The Manifold Way is a (mostly) traffic-free trail that runs for 8 miles through stunning countryside in the Staffordshire Peak District between Hulme End in the north and Waterhouses in the south. Following the former route of the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway, in use until 1934, it follows the course of the River Manifold through the Manifold Valley.
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At 2,087 feet high, Kinder Scout is the highest point in the Peak District National Park, and one of the few true mountains in the region, although it's far more of a high moorland plateau than a traditional mountain. The views from its edges are awe-inspiring in the truest sense of the words. Walking to the summit from the little village of Edale takes the traveller through a huge variation in landscape and perfectly illustrates the diversity of the Peak District.
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There’s only one place in the Peak District where you can find a Georgian mansion, an Italian-style villa, a Swiss cottage and a miniature castle all on the same street, and that’s Edensor! This pretty little village lies within the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. It’s a picture-perfect place, with its eclectic mix of housing styles laid out around a wide village green, in the centre of which stands the graceful church of St Peter’s.
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Arbor Low is a stone henge situated just outside the pretty town of Bakewell. It's regarded as being one of the most important Neolithic sites in the UK, and very few henge monuments are as well-preserved. Thought to have been established in around 2500 BC and in use until the Bronze Age, Arbor Low was one of the first ancient monuments in the UK to be given statutory protection in the late 19th Century.
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Just to the south of the pretty Peak District village of Tideswell you’ll find Tideswell Dale. This limestone valley with a stream running through its centre is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life, including many rare varieties of orchids and butterflies. It's a beautiful, sheltered spot with easy access paths throughout, and makes a great spot for a family picnic and walk. There's an obvious and accessible path through the dale, completing a circuit around 0.5 km in length around the inner perimeter of the dale.
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The beautiful little village of Parwich lies in the Derbyshire hills on the southern edge of the Peak District. It's surrounded by wonderful countryside and walking along the village lanes is like stepping back in time, with quaint stone cottages on quiet streets and a stream running through the centre of the village. No wonder that The Sunday Times named it ‘one of the best places to live in Britain’ in 2015.
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Matlock Bath was one of England’s first true tourist destinations in the late 17th Century, when the healing properties of its warm spa waters were first discovered. Access to the area was improved in the 18th Century, and by the 19th Century Matlock Bath was a place for society’s finest to visit. And little wonder, for it occupies a beautiful position in a limestone gorge on the River Derwent, with attractive riverside gardens and steep wooded hillsides.
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