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peak district
Tideswell
The road to climbs up to Tideswell, a former lead mining community that enjoyed heady prosperity in medieval times. Some of the local money went towards building the grandest church in the Peak District (dubbed the Cathedral of the Peak). Strikingly uniform it is almost entirely in the 14th-century Decorated style, although the Perpendicular tower is later.
At the A623 turn right and immediately left on the B6049 through Bradwell, then turn left on the A625 to Castleton.
Castleton lies at the heart of the Peak District's cave country: there are four show caves in and around the village, each different in character. In the village itself is Peak Cavern (also known more rustically as the Devil's Arse). It is the largest of all the caves but has no significant stalactites or stalagmites, but it's worth walking up to if only to see the vast cave entrance. This used to house an entire rope-making community and is set at the end a little gorge beneath the shattered Norman remains of Peveril Castle, itself a marvellous viewpoint. There is decent food at the Castle Hotel, Rose Cottage and George. Castleton is also a big centre for walking, the best of the walks including Mam Tor and the limestone gorge of Cave Dale, just behind Peveril Castle.
From Castleton go west, passing on the right a road leading to a Treak Cliff Cavern and Blue John Cavern. Blue John Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern have both been mined for Blue John, a rich-veined precious stone used to to make ornaments; Treak Cliff in particular has some splendid stalactites and stalagmites and atmospheric shadows cast by lighting.
The road goes up Winnats, a limestone gorge. Speedwell Cavern, at the top of the gorge, is an abandoned lead mine where you take an underground boat trip along floodlit passages finishing in a natural cavern with a "bottomless pit".
Just beyond, turn right on the B6061 and keep left at the next junction (the right turn is the old main road which is now permanently closed after repeated landslips).
Very soon you'll see the flight of steps leading up to the Iron Age hillfort on top of Mam Tor, a spectacular viewpoint providing a breezy ridge walk extending two miles to Lose Hill.
Take the next right, and keep right. Pass the entrance to the village of Edale, the starting point of the Pennine Way and nearly always beginning busy with walkers. This is the most famous of Britain's National Trails, though the beginning section here is rather bleak, crossing Kinder Scout, a huge expanse of boggy moorland; a much better (and more scenic) route known as the Pennine Way Alternative Route avoids the boggy sections and takes you round the edge of the moor before joining the main Pennine Way at Kinder Downfall waterfall.
Follow the road to the village of Hope, where turn left on the A625 to Hathersage. After the junction with the A6103 turn left at the edge of Hathersage, then left up Coggers Lane. Turn left at a T-junction, climb up to another T-junction where you turn right.
There are several car parks along here, beneath Stanage Edge, the highest of the dramatic rims around the Dark Peak. A few minutes walk up any of the paths here gets you up to the top of this primeval-feeling moor, its remote character belying its proximity to the Sheffield suburbs a few miles east.
Keep left at the next three junctions (if you turn right at any of them, you drop down to Hathersage).
After the third one you reach the head of a huge moorland valley, with the well-preserved ancient fortified lump of Carl Wark jutting up below in a boulder-strewn basin. There's a wide track on the right where you can pull off the road and admire the view before turning round and driving back into the valley.
From the centre of Hathersage, take the B6001, then turn right on the B6251 to Eyam.
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