Places to See and Visit

Places to See and Visit When first prepared in 1995 I had prepared these notes for our cottages one mile down the road near Biggin Dale with the intention of providing information regarding local walks and cycle rides but has now expanded into advising as to my personal view of places to observe or visit, most of the places mentioned being within a 25 minutes drive. Just up the road is Heathcote Mere, at which it is well worth stopping briefly as you drive past. Turn right as you come out of the cottage, right up the steep hill, go past the Youth Hostel and it is at the cross-road. In summer people often stop to have picnics here and it is quite colourful in the months of June and July This Mere has existed since at least 1462. For many of the years since 1995, there have been pairs of coots living in the mere's vicinity. If you turn right at the cross roads and Mere, you are heading to Biggin, but after only a few hundred yards where the roads is at its lowest point you pass the entrance gate to the NT nature reserve known as Biggin Dale. On the picture of this dale you will see Cotterill Farm where we lived for 22 years until 2016. The walk through this dale, which is a nature reserve, heads after a 25/30 minute walk to the River Dove (There is also a right turn after 10 minutes to proceed along a bridleway initially – past a wonderful hipped roofed barn, i.e with a roof vaguely pyramid shaped - and then the quietest possible county lane back to Hartington). In the second half of May and early June you get the early purple orchids and other wild flowers in Biggin Dale making an appearance, and it really is a wonderful sight, even people like me who prefer hills and views to wild flowers can fully appreciate them. Biggin Dale meets the River Dove at a stretch known as Wolfscote Dale, if you turn right here, you end up walking up the river going after Wolfscote Dale through Beresford Dale, and coming out back in Hartington. (It’s about an hours walk from Biggin Dale’s meeting point Above Biggin Dale towards Wolfscote Dale with the River Dove to Hartington. Just a few yards before you get to Biggin Dale, on the left of the road, there is what appears to be a grassed track but is in fact what is known as a 'strip field' and dates back to the time of the enclosures some 300 years ago when fields were formed in long and thin shapes by way of dry stone walls – killing two birds with one stone as the stone would be picked from the fields. In the years since then most of the fields have of course now been significantly enlarged by the removal of these walls, a process that has continued year on year right up to the present day although rules introduced in 2006 now means that a dry stone wall can not now be removed without permission.. This strip field can best be seen from the bridleway that takes you from the Hartington Youth Hostel to Biggin Dale, just as you are dropping down to the road, off which the stip field is situated. On the subject of bridleways, there are quite a few between Hartington, Biggin and the River Dove, making up a nice network of easy walking. One has in 2006 been up- graded to a 'Leisure Lane' having been surfaced like a cycle track and is a relatively good walking surface for the less agile. This one is off to the right about 80 yards after the Youth Hostel and is the one heading to the top end of Biggin Dale. The bridleway opposite the Youth Hostel itself, turns right after only a couple of hundred yards and joins with a tarmacced road - that is the quietest possible lane, (and eventually it reaches a cross-roads of further bridleways, one turning for which takes you along the cul-de-sac to Whim Farm above Wolfscote Dale, where Hartington Beer is brewed. Turning our attention now to the other side of Hartington, about 2 miles north at the settlement of Pilsbury in a valley of the River Dove is an iron-age settlement, on which later a mottee-and-bailey castle was built. However there are no ruins as such, just the shape of the land to give you clues. This can be reached by walking or driving northwards along the gated road from Hartington (leaving the cheese shop and geese pond on your left) and just as this roads turns back 150 degrees and up a hill, it is a 3 minute walk along a footpath in the same direction as the river. (Perhaps a more interesting approach is to drop down a track from the nearby village of Sheen, on the other side of the river, dropping into the valley, crossing the river by a bridge and then along this footpath to your left). Monyash is another popular village just a few miles away from Hartington (this too has a pond) and benefits from a pleasant village green, which adjoins a café and pub. Just a mile on from Monyash is the start of Lathkill Dale, for walkers only - probably the second most visited dale after Dovedale. To reach Monyash you can either go up to the main road(A515) turn left and follow the sign post off to your right after just under 2 miles. However a more attractive route is along the minor road called Long Dale. Go half way up to the A515 and turn left, then this quiet county lane carries on for a number of miles. Any one of the three turnings off to the right will take you to the A515, which should be crossed over, following the signs again to Monyash. Incidentally, nearly all the minor roads around here are extremely attractive and should ideally be used in preference to the A and B classification roads. In the opposite direction, so heading south to Ashbourne, is Tissington, (an estate village which is definitely worth a visit). It has everything to attract visitors, a Norman church, ducks on the village mere, a Jacobean house and interesting fields around the village. (Also has an excellent and attractive tea-room next to the Hall) The old Jacobean Hall in the estate village of Tissington The village is excellent for both strolling around the village and as the start for various good walks. As you go through the main gates there are some fine medieval ridge and furrow fields To get there, head for Ashbourne onto the A515 and after about 7 miles of driving turn left (sign- posted) through the village gates The snow is resting in the trough of the ridge and furrow field If you were to turn right at the Tissington crossroads, rather than left, you would come after a couple of miles to DOVEDALE. Firstly YOU arrive at Thorpe and at the junction turn right and immediately left to Ilam. After half a mile or so there is a small carpark on the right (with toilets) but waiting is limited to 20 minutes, nothing like enough to explore the area. However if one or more of your party is more energetic than others, we suggest that those persons be dropped off here and they can climb the prominent and interestingly shaped hill of Thorpe Cloud before dropping down to join the rest of the party at The Stepping Stones. The party remaining in the car should carry on another half mile turning right up a lane to a fee paying car-park. Just a few hundred yards walk from the car park along a lane adjacent to the River Dove you come to the Stepping Stones where the footpath along the Dale starts properly. This Dale is particularly good walk for children as there are caves etc along the side to explore. Dovedale is of course the most popular dale in the Peak District and therefore we strongly recommend you avoid visiting during the day at weekends. If Patrick & our two girls in 1995 crossing the visiting during the school stepping stone when River Dove in full spate holidays, we suggest you go either first thing in the morning or in the evening. Much better than driving to Dovedale is to catch our local bus which stops in the centre of Hartington's market place - this travels about 8 times a day in the direction of Ashbourne, alight at Tissington, take a footpath over to the River Dove (at the Stepping Stones) then to walk back about 7 miles alongside the river to Hartington Dovedale is a 3 mile or so long stretch of the River Dove and at the Hartington end of this stretch, you will come to a hamlet called Milldale (teas sold here from an outside kiosk), but you can carry walking along the Dove, through Wolfscote Dale, Beresford Dale and then across some meadows back to the village. About an 8 mile walk from Tissington. (Alternatively you could get the bus that operates like a taxi, through Moorlands Connect or Derbyshire connect (more in another document) for the price of a bus fare and this can drop you at the bottom end of Dovedale itself. This is an absolutely brilliant and almost unbelievable service. To someone like me who likes exploring footpaths and bridleways, I was intrigued to discover leading from the other side of the village of Thorpe (just before you reach Dovedale) an abandoned old turnpike road.

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