Peak District National Park and Derbyshire Accommodation

The Peak District National Park does not disappoint! Over 500 square miles of bustling market towns, impressive stately homes and country houses, craggy peaks, gentle valleys, unspoilt villages all providing a rich resource for visitors to explore and enjoy annual visits in excess of 22 million per year serve only to bear testimony to its popularity.

What makes this area such a desirable part of the world for your Peak District Vacation.
Its appeal must surely lie largely in its diverse landscape, tradition and heritage providing inspiration to all who visit and relief from the daily stresses of our busy lives, as well as excellent holiday accommodation ranging from B&Bs to Peak District luxury hotels.

Click on Hotels In Ashbourne to find out more about the town, its nearby attractions and the variety of accommodation available to you.

Click on Hotels In Bakewell to read a bit more about this home of the Bakewell Pudding and where you can stay.

Click on Hotels In Castleton to find the best guest houses, country inns and hotels in the area.

Popular for centuries by walkers and admirers of the far-reaching views, there are only a handful of villages on the outskirts of the moors which offer hotel accommodation. Hotels In Grindleford will take you to some of the best we can find.

Simply click on Hotels In Buxton for more details.

Select Hotels in Matlock from the list below to find out the best places to stay.

Whether you would like your stay to be in the central hub of Derby, or one of its pretty outlying villages and suburbs, go to Hotels in Derby to see an assortment of what is on offer.

With such a diverse and rich variety of accommodation available to visitors, we hope the Hotels In The Peak District By Village section of our site will help you to find the right location and the most appropriate accommodation. You may find yourself so spoilt for choice that you have to return time and time again!

The Peak District's many attractions include museums, galleries, theme parks for both young and old, heritage centres, mills and caverns. Eating and drinking are Peak District pastimes, the region offers an enticing choice of pubs, restaurants, bistros, cafes and tea rooms. Eating Out In The Peaks lists where you can eat, drink and be merry.

If Kent is the garden of England, then The Peak District could be its rockery, on account of its craggy hills and caves. Or a very ornate attraction (Chatsworth).

We prefer to picture The Peak District as a playground whether you are seeking the adrenaline-fuelled thrills of Alton Towers and other theme parks in Derbyshire, outdoor activities such as walking, hiking, cycling, discovering hidden depths in the region's network of caves and caverns, or simply want to give yourself up to the pleasures of food and drink with the Peak District's gastronomic diversity. A pudding in Bakewell. Spring water in Buxton. Stilton from Hartington and food for thought throughout the whole region. And some of the nations best food can be found in the restaurants and Peak District Hotels that are in abundance within the area.

If you're planning to stay for a few days, check out the Peak District Holiday Accommodation section where you can choose from quaint self-catering peak district cottages, or homely peak district bed and breakfast, campsites in the peak district or youth hostels. The Peak District also offers hotels to suit every budget. For the Peak District Cottage Of The Week just take a peek!
The Peak District's a paradise for sports enthusiasts, outdoor aficionados and fresh air fiends. For water lovers, Carsington Water, England's ninth largest reservoir, is a popular venue with an onsite exhibition showing how Severn Trent distributes local water supplies. There are shops, restaurants, a visitor centre, and a sailing club: activities for all the family! Pull on your walking boots and try out one of the thousands of trails, paths and routes zigzagging the hills, valleys and waterways. See Walking In The Peaks for guidance on where to head for.

Popular towns in the Peak District include Ashbourne, Bakewell, Buxton and Matlock for more information, see the Town Guides

The internets most popular guide to the Peak District - with the latest accommodation information, hotels and cottages in abundance, and everything to do and see in the Peak District and surrounding areas of Derbyshire! If you're looking for a holiday or short break in the Peak District National Park - look no further than Peak District Online! Our guide is the largest on the internet and features self catering accommodation including holiday cottages, many of which are ETC inspected - AA and Johansens rated hotels as well as RAC, b&b accommodation, campsites & caravan parks, a great selection of village pubs offering overnight stays, farm holidays, family holiday parks, wheelchair accessible or properties with at least some facilities for the disabled and more. We have also accommodation listings that have swimming pools and saunas.

The Peak District.

Over 500 square miles of bustling market towns, impressive stately homes and country houses, craggy peaks, gentle valleys, unspoilt villages all providing a rich resource for visitors and locals to explore and enjoy.

If you love the outdoors then The Peak District has something for everyone choose a gentle stroll or a arduous ramble, traverse the craggy peaks, cycle ride Tissington trail, learn to fish, canoe, Archery, helicopter rides, balloon flights and plenty more.

The Peak District's many attractions include Stately Homes, museums, galleries, theme parks for both young and old, heritage centres, mills and caverns. Eating and drinking are Peak District pastimes, the region offers an enticing choice of pubs, restaurants, bistros, cafes and tea rooms where you can eat drink and be merry.

Stately Homes
There are over 30 Country Houses in the Peak District with a varied range of styles and architecture.

Chatsworth House

Chatsworth is one of Britain's most celebrated and best loved historic houses and estates, offering something for everyone to enjoy, from world famous works of art and spectacular fountains to elegant shops and more than a hundred miles of free walks. The home of the Devonshire family is set in the heart of England, in Derbyshire's Peak District National Park, surrounded by one of the most magnificent landscapes in the country.

Village Guides

Villages In The Peaks

The Peak District National Park is extensive and diverse and can be divided into sections known as The Dark Peak, The White Peak, The Staffordshire Moorlands and the Derbyshire Dales. The cities of Manchester, Sheffield and Derby are excluded from the National Park, its largest town being Bakewell which is the capital of the Peak District and contains the Peak District National Park headquarters at Aldern House.

Buxton, which is often described as the cultural capital of the Peak District is surprisingly omitted, the boundary sweeping almost 360 degrees to exclude it, and the towns of Ashbourne, Belper, Matlock, Leek , Chesterfield and Dronfield also lie just over the border.

What the Peak District does contain however are lots of wonderful village, some containing chocolate box pretty cottages or character properties oozing with charm. Together with valuable housing, business premises, shops and village stores these villages in the peaks help to support the communities which live and work here together with the millions of visitors who pass through each year.

Some of the villages in the peaks are steeped in history, their names familiar and appearing in many of the guide books, such as Chatsworth, Eyam, Dove Dale, Castleton and Padley, whilst others such as Ible,Pike Hall, Parsley Hay, Oker and Bretton are so small that they hardly raise a mention.

Centuries ago it was quite a challenge to travel through the vast tracts of uncultivated open land, moors and bogs so markers were erected such as the crosses at Wheston and Hope. The routes of old drovers roads and salt ways can still be found like the medieval portway which ran north from Derby passing through Grange Mill before leading north to Castleton, whilst packhorse routes and holloways can still be traced around Glossop, Hayfield, Thornhill, Wardlow and the aptly named Holloway.

Running down the eastern flank of the Peak District are glacially formed Edges or escarpments, often featuring huge unusual shaped gritstone boulders with strange names. Some of these Edges take the name of the village above which they tower such as Curbar Edge and Froggatt Edge. Behind the Edges lie long stretches of high moorland which you must cross before you reach the villages of Barlow and Holmesfield, both commuter belt land for Chesterfield and Sheffield.

Stanton moor sits like a raised oasis of sandstone above Darley Dale and Birchover.

The White Peak was named after the mile upon mile of limestone dry walls which divide it, with none more evident than those surrounding Flagg, Chelmorton, Newhaven and Sheldon.

Some villages in the Peaks are found on remote hilltops where years ago little farmsteads eked out a living from the land. Abney, Butterton, Elton, Flash, Grindon, Hollingsclough and Warslow have names that almost sound synonymous with hard times.

Peak Forest on the other hand takes its name from The Royal Forest of the Peak which back in the 13th century was a wooded expanse in the north of the Peak District where royal shooting parties would hunt deer, wild boar and even wolves. Chapel-en-le-Frith was another settlement in the Royal Forest, its name meaning Chapel in the Forest.

Chinley is a more modern village in the peak, being established in Victorian times at a junction of railway lines which then led to Manchester, Stockport, Sheffield, Derby and London.

Villages in the Peak to the south of the region around Ashbourne are dramatically different from those to the north, often with rosy red bricks, Higham, Hognaston and Fenny Bentley being prime examples.

The Peak District contains several rivers that started life as rain falling on the high land and moors, the most important being the River Derwent which has three dams in succession within the first few miles of its source. After cascading over Derwent, Howden and Ladybower, the river flows down the valley passing Bamford, Hathersage , Grindleford, Calver, Baslow, Rowsley, Matlock, Matlock Bath, Cromford, Whatstandwell, Ambergate and Belper before it reaches the county capital of Derby after which it joins forces with the Trent.

The River Wye flows through dramatic scenery on its route east from Buxton, including Millers Dale , Cressbrook, Ashford-In-The-Water, Bakewell and Rowsley where it unites with the Derwent just after powering the waterwheel at Rowsley Mill

The little river Noe has the Vale of Edale all to itself before it runs into the Derwent at Shatton, whilst the Amber which meanders through Ashover has a valley named after it - the Amber Valley.

The rivers Lathkill and Bradford are said to be amongst the purest in the country and flow through nature reserves, overlooked by the villages of Monyash, Over Haddon, Youlgreave and Alport. But one of the most famous of Peak District rivers is of course our wonderful Dove, the drama queen of the dales which entices the most visitors to walk along its banks. Only the little hamlets of Crowdecote, Milldale and Mappleton can boast to be sited by its side, but Hartington, Alstonefield, Thorpe, Longnor and Sheen are but a mere footpath away.

Some villages in the peaks are so special that they are named twice! Middleton-by-Youlgreave is a short distance from Youlgreave and Middleton-by-Wirksworth can be found a mile or so from Wirksworth. Then there's Little Longstone and Great Longstone, Little Hucklow and Great Hucklow not to mention Stanton-in-the-Peak and Stanton Lees.

Chatsworth House is the jewel in the Peak District crown, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Also owned by the estate are several villages in the Peaks including Beeley, Pilsley, Edensor and several properties at Wetton.

The little peak district village of Hassop is dominated by Hassop Hall, Snitterton by Snitterton Hall, Alderwasley by Alderwasley Hall and Tissington by Tissington Hall which remains an estate village owned entirely by the FitzHerbert family. Wingfield Manor near South Wingfield may now be nothing more than a ruin, but it survived many battles and for a time was used as a prison for Mary Queen of Scots. Her freedom was foiled by a plot thought up by Thomas Babington of Dethick after which both of them met a premature death at the hands of an executioner.

Riber has a castle and a hall amongst its handful of properties, whilst the peak district villages of King Sterndale and Earl Sterndale have regal sounding names. The residents may not be aristocrats, but they certainly consider their homes to be little palaces!

Some villages in the peak are famed for a feature or nearby place of interest such as Crich and Crich Stand, Carsington and Carsington Water, Tideswell and the Cathedral of the Peak, but does anyone remember the sad story of the lone tree at Oker. Bradwell on the other hand is famous for its scrumptious ice cream!

Customs and traditions abound in the villages in the Peak, many having an annual well dressing ceremony where wells which provided valuable water before the onset of the mains supply are blessed by a pictorial floral arrangement. Amongst the villages taking part are Bonsall, Brassington, Foolow, Litton, Longnor, Parwich , Stoney Middleton , Taddington and Wormhill . Winster has a shrove tide pancake race down the village street and Castleton has an annual garland ceremony.

Surrounded by wonderful Peak District countryside makes living in one of the villages in the peaks a blessing, often expensive but always appreciated.

For more information on Stately homes please visit Derbyshire Country Houses

Arts, Crafts and Museums
Throughout the Peak District there are a variety of museums and Arts and Crafts Shops showing work from famous artists to local artists who have taken inspiritation from the beautiful surroundings. The Peak Districts vast sources of natural materials are used by the many established Peak District craft workers to create and inspire.

For more information on Arts, Crafts and Museums please visit Peak District Arts & Crafts

Outdoor Pursuits

Fishing is one of England s most popular sports/pastimes and in The Peak District you will find an excellent choice of rivers and lakes to try and catch that elusive Big One . If fishing is something new to you there are fishing schools and tutors that can teach you from the basics to the advanced.

The Peak Districts landscape means it is a Mecca for climbers; thousands of climbing enthusiasts take to the crags each year. Stanage, Burbage, Curbar and Froggatt edge are some of the popular areas for climbers. The peak district has climbing to occupy the enthusiastic beginner through to the world-class athlete visiting from abroad.

Walking
Walking has to be the most popular activity in The Peak District and that is for a reason it is home to beautiful scenery and has terrain that can provide you with any walking route you require from a Sunday stroll or for the more adventurous a hike through rugged terrain.

For more information on Walking please visit Peak District Walking

Peak District Holidays are an experience to treasure, so special that you will want to return time and time again.
We have dramatic scenery patiently waiting to be captured on your cameras, which has taken millions of years to be formed into the breathtakingly beautiful rolling hills of the White Peak, the tranquil and serene Derbyshire Dales or the rugged moorland pinnacle known as the Dark Peak which can be foreboding and fearsome in bad weather or heaven on earth when the sun is shining. Down the eastern flank of the Peak District is an impressive backbone of glacial Edges fringed with footpaths.

Mountain Biking and Cycling

The sport of mountain biking is extremely popular in the Peak District, especially around Edale and the Hope valley. Traversing the hillsides on a bike is an exhilarating (and often exhausting and dirty) experience and it is possible to cover considerable distances over unlikely looking terrain. You can find large groups of riders around these areas most weekends.

There main centres for mountain biking are around the Hope Valley and the Upper Derwent valley, though good routes also start from Hayfield, Peak Forest, Eyam and Tideswell - just to give a few examples.

Cycling routes are all over the Peak District and there are cycle hire centres in Bakewell, Ashbourne and Derwent.

For more information on Mountain Biking and Cycling please visit Cycling In The Peak District

Accommodation

There are thousands of Cottages, Hotels, B&BS, Farms and many more choices of accommodation in the Peak District and for whatever your length of stay you can be sure there is the right accommodation for you. Stay in a 4 star hotel in luxury or set up camp in a one of the hundreds of campsites. Stay on a working farm or relax in a lodge in one of the many Country parks. Peak district hotels abound with hotels in the peak district being some of the most sought after hotels in the country. From the smallest Peak district hotel to some of the largest hotels in the peak district , all offer a warm welcome ready for the day ahead !

For more information on Accommodation please visit Accommodation In The Peak District

Food and Drink

The Peak District offers a vast choice of dining experiences. Whether you prefer a carvery meal in a traditional pub or the whole haute cuisine experience, there are cafes, bistros, restaurants and tearooms all waiting to take your order.

Eating out in the Peaks guarantees two things diversity and hospitality. The Peak District is fast becoming renowned for its gastronomy and thanks to the rich supply of local specialities; diners can enjoy fresh produce, tasty cheeses, organic meats and robust puddings. Eating Out in the Peaks provides culinary experiences sure to satisfy the heartiest of appetites as well as the most discerning of customers. Peak District cafes and bistros pride themselves on welcoming visitors whether they seek a restorative cup of tea, a relaxing glass of wine or a full-blown three course meal.

For more information on Food and Drink please visit Food And Drink In The Peak District

Peak District Village Websites

Just launching for 2008 ! A number of village sites for the community - check out Foolow more soon!

Farmers Markets

Farmers' markets have existed since the dawn of agriculture and the birth of commerce. They differ from conventional markets in that farmers are present in person to sell their produce and goods to the general public whether this is jam, bread, vegetables, fruit, meat or dairy produce. There is no middleman. It's an honest, traditional and typically rural way of operating and is enjoying increased popularity across the UK, and especially in the Peak District where there is such a wonderful range of local produce.

For more information on Farmers Markets please visit Farmers Markets In The Peak District