Camping in the Peak District

The Peak District was the first national park in Britain, created in 1951 after decades of campaigning that included the Kinder Scout mass trespass. That history is still visible in how thoroughly the access rights are used — this is a park designed for walking into rather than driving through.

It splits cleanly in two. The Dark Peak in the north is gritstone: high, boggy moorland with dramatic edges. The White Peak in the south is limestone: green dales, drystone walls and river valleys.

Dark Peak

Stanage Edge is four miles of gritstone escarpment and the most important rock-climbing crag in Britain, with a level path along the top that anyone can walk. Kinder Scout is the highest ground in the park and a genuinely confusing plateau of peat groughs — excellent in clear weather, disorientating in cloud.

Mam Tor and the Great Ridge to Lose Hill is the classic short day: two hours, mostly flagged, with the Hope Valley on one side and Edale on the other.

White Peak

Dovedale with its stepping stones is the postcard, and busy for it. Lathkill Dale and the Manifold Valley give you the same limestone scenery with a fraction of the people.

The Monsal Trail runs eight and a half miles along a disused railway through four lit tunnels — flat, traffic-free and one of the best family cycle routes in England, with hire available at both ends.

Getting there without a car

The Hope Valley line runs from Sheffield to Manchester through the middle of the park, stopping at Edale, Hope, Bamford and Hathersage. Several campsites are within walking distance of a station, which is unusual in a British national park and worth taking advantage of.