The Peak District
Britain's first national park was won by trespassers in 1932, and today it sits within an hour's drive of around 16 million people.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- Northern England, mostly Derbyshire, spilling into Staffordshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire
- Designated
- 17 April 1951, as Britain's first national park
- Size
- About 555 square miles (1,438 sq km)
- Highest point
- Kinder Scout, 636 metres (2,087 ft)
- Two landscapes
- The gritstone moors of the Dark Peak and the limestone dales of the White Peak
- Famous trail
- The Pennine Way begins at Edale, in the heart of the park
- Landmark event
- The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, 24 April 1932
- Visitors
- Often put at over 13 million visits a year
The park that was won by trespassers
On 24 April 1932, several hundred ramblers set off from Hayfield and marched onto Kinder Scout, a vast moorland plateau then reserved for grouse shooting. Gamekeepers were waiting. Scuffles followed, and six men were arrested, though five were jailed, receiving sentences of between two and six months. The Mass Trespass is now a founding legend of the right to roam. It built momentum for the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, and on 17 April 1951 the Peak District became the very first national park in Britain. Benny Rothman, the young Mancunian who led the trespass, lived long enough to see the right to roam widened in law in 2000. Today you can walk on much of the moor he was arrested for crossing.
Why it isn't actually full of peaks
The name is a puzzle, because the Peak District is hardly spiky. The name probably comes from the Pecsæte, an Anglo-Saxon tribe who lived here, rather than from any pointed summits. What you get instead are broad, brooding plateaus, rounded edges and rocky tors. Kinder Scout is a peat-topped tableland with strange wind-carved boulders. Its Kinder Downfall, at about 30 metres, is the highest waterfall in the Peak District, and in a strong westerly wind it can be blown back up the cliff and look as if it is flowing in reverse.
Two parks in one
The northern Dark Peak is made of millstone grit: black moorland, peat bogs, steep edges and heather that turns purple in late summer. Stanage Edge, Bleaklow and Kinder all belong here, and gritstone cliffs have made this a training ground for generations of British climbers. The southern White Peak is a different world. Pale limestone gives you green fields cut by drystone walls, and deep, winding dales such as Dovedale, with its stepping stones and the rocky pinnacle of Ilam Rock. Caves, including Blue John Cavern and Peak Cavern at Castleton, honeycomb the rock underneath. Blue John is a rare banded fluorite found only around Castleton. It has been mined for ornaments for centuries.
Wells, wells and a very odd tradition
In several villages, locals still dress wells with elaborate pictures made from thousands of flower petals pressed into wet clay. Tissington is famous for it, and the custom is often linked to giving thanks for clean water. Many villages hold their dressing in summer, and the results are astonishingly detailed. The park also has real heavyweights of heritage. Chatsworth House, home of the Dukes of Devonshire, sits in the Derwent valley, and Haddon Hall is a remarkably well-preserved medieval manor. Down in the valleys, the Cromford mills established by Richard Arkwright helped launch the factory age.
A village that chose to isolate itself
In 1665, plague reached the village of Eyam in a bundle of cloth from London. The villagers, led by rector William Mompesson and his predecessor Thomas Stanley, chose to quarantine themselves rather than risk spreading it. Food was left at boundary stones, and payment was dropped into vinegar-filled holes. Around 260 people died in Eyam over about 14 months. The village's decision likely saved neighbouring communities, and the story still draws visitors to its church and cottages today.
What to look for when you're there
Walk the Monsal Trail, a former railway line with tunnels and a famous viaduct view over the River Wye. Climb Mam Tor, nicknamed the Shivering Mountain for its crumbling shale face. Spot mountain hares on the high moors, which are among the few places in England where they live. And try a Bakewell pudding in Bakewell itself. Locals insist it is not a tart, and the argument can be fiercer than anything on the moors.
Notable people
- Benny Rothman
- Richard Arkwright
- William Mompesson
- Thomas Stanley
Test yourself
Play the UK quizMore to see nearby
Chatsworth House
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A Derbyshire country house once hid a 296-foot fountain, a Tudor queen's prisoner and a duke's glasshouse so big that carriages drove through it.