Obviously, I know the Peak District is chock-full of picturesque villages, I'm just spoilt for choice. We're going for 3 days and would like to spend half a day or so in a nice little village. Tea rooms, nice pubs, a few things of interest to look at, that sort of thing. Is Hartington nice? Tideswell? Youlgreave? I don't know.
Wirksworth itself is nice as an old industrial village - has galleries, museums, pubs cafes. Any smaller and you have to do without the "amenities". Castleton's quaint. Cromford's got shit loads of history - birthplace of the industrial proletariat. Belper's thriving. Matlock/Matlock Bath is Blackpool-in-Peak but lots of hidden gems. Winster is smaller but up on the pituresque. Birchover has victorian pleasure rocks and Stanton Moor. Bakewell )) of course, and Ashford (smaller) a bit further north. But Cromford!
I stopped in Baslow (near Bakewell) last month while on the way to Buxton. Admittedly it was just for a quick toilet stop, but the rest of the village looked quite nice
If you've never read it before then one place you might get some new ideas from is Mike Harding's Walking the Peak and Pennines. I enjoyed reading it and weaving days out around the locations many years ago.
Lovely place it may be but every village that I've ever been to in the Peak District has left me seething with the urge to go postal!
Personally, I'd avoid Bakewell (and Matlock) - too twee, too crowded. I really like Youlgreave, and Tideswell is deffo worth a nosy, great place to start a walk from. The Tissington trail is lovely, and old rail line so nice and flattish. And Stanton Moor, already said, gorgeousness.
Hathersage would be my choice too. There's a good bakery, good food at the pubs(I think editor's link will provide names), the David Mellor kitchen place is there and they have a cool old Massey outside by the traffic lights Oh and the church up from the pub we ate in on Saturday night is worth a look.
Following on from this, can anyone recommend a nice family-friendly restaurant for lunch one day? Near Wirksworth if possible.
Wirksworth - le mistral or the Malt shovel inn. Ye Olde Gate Inn in brassington, or the Miners Arms in Carsington
Day trip to Arbor Low and Buxton, tea at http://www.bulliththorn.com/ Not massively cheap but very relaxed (they let a load of munters and site crew have a party all weekend in their barn), and though the food wasn't massively cheap (£7-9 per adult meal) the food was epic quality and fuck knows where they got veggies so fresh. Everything is 100% home cooked and really good portions of very fresh food. The camp site is also dirt cheap. £3 per night for tents. If you do go Buxton PM and I'll tell you the location of the top secret discount shop. Full of the sort of awesome stuff you don't get in city discount shops and pisses all over Wilkos - you won't find it without directions. Not sure what the food is like but you may want to visit http://www.birchoverredlion.com/ as well, and more importantly the carved rocks nearby (ask directions in the pub - there are thrones and all sorts, known locally as druids rock). And of course always worth a stroll over to Nine Ladies stone circle, if you come at it over the moor from the Birchover side you avoid steep hills but miss the spring.
Think Edale is good for a starting point for a walk but it's basically three buildings, not much of a village! Hope's a bit better down the road but for somewhere to spend a day I'd say Castleton, bit bigger with more variety of shops/better choice of things to do (plus the caverns)
We went to Wirksworth, Cromford, Hathersage, Bakewell and Tideswell. I liked Tideswell and Wirksworth the best
Buxton is brilliant. Loads of music, everyone smiles, lots to drink and then there's the drugs! more drugs than you can shake a stick at. Seriously, you'll love it. Well it was when I went to a three day concert years ago.
I cycled from cromford to edale this weekend. Edale was decent for camping and a couple of ales in the evening
