Lets start the tour at the Old Toll
House in Ringinglow an octagonal building at the crossroads, built in 1795 to
collect the fee due to use the Eccleshall to Hathersage turnpike. Toll paid we
head west to Hathersage a village associted with Charlotte Bronte's novel "Jane
Eyre" with Moor House located nearby.
Millstone Edge a disused quarry just
outside the town is littered with discarded millstones and to the East is Carl
Wark an Iron Age hill fort. Robin Hood's right hand man "Little John" was from
Hathersage, the head and foot stones of his grave in the church yard are 7 feet
apart.
Continuing up the valley to the pleasant
village of Hope and Castleton where Peveril Castle towers over the busy village,
built in the 11th Century and had a keep added by Henry II in 1176 it was
immortalised in the novel Peveril of the Peak by Sir Walter Scott. The
Devil's Hole under the castle extends 2,000 ft below, where guided tours are
available through a maze.
The majestic Winnats Pass and Mam Tor
are on a short circular route to the west of Castleton where the enterances to
the caverns are, Speedwell Cavern is flooded and is toured by boat. Blue John is
the only source of the mineral of the same name, having been worked by the
Romans 2,000 years ago it was rediscovered 300 years back by local miners.
Driving south from Castleton through
Little & Great Hucklow to Eyam, where in 1665 the inhabitants who had contracted
the plague decided to seal the village and rather than running and spreading the
infection which resulted in only one in six surviving.
Mompesson's Well named after the rector
who lead this heroic gesture to the remaining locality is located at the edge of
the village, this was the point that food was left left for collection leaving
coins for payment that had been washed in the well.
Through Froggatt down the Derwent Valley
and up to Curbar Gap which on a clear day offers distant views to the west.
Skirting Bakewell through Baslow to Edensor and Chatsworth House the home of the
Dukes of Devonshire.
Chatsworth House
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