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THE PEAK DISTRICT
Designated on 17th April 1951 as Britain’s first national park, the Peak District spans 555 square miles (1,438 km²) in the heart of England—roughly the size of Greater London—and stretches across five counties: Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Greater Manchester. Renowned as the most accessible national park, it lies close to major cities such as Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, and Derby. The landscape is a striking mix of rugged gritstone edges in the Dark Peak, dramatic limestone dales in the White Peak, and gently rolling hills and farmland in the South West Peak, offering a rich variety of scenery and outdoor experiences.
Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District, rises to 2,086 feet (636 metres), overlooking a landscape threaded with 26,000 miles of dry stone walls—enough to encircle the Earth. As a true 'living landscape' and an IUCN Category 5 National Park, it is home to 38,000 residents and stands apart from many global wilderness parks by blending natural beauty with human life. Welcoming over 13 million visitors annually, the Peak District sits within an hour’s travel for around 20 million people, making it one of the most visited and accessible national parks in the world.
The Peak District is a walker’s paradise, serving as the starting point of the iconic 268-mile (431 km) Pennine Way in the village of Edale and offering 202 square miles of open access land where walkers are free to roam beyond designated paths. With 1,600 miles of public rights of way and 34 miles of traffic-free trails—many following old railway lines and managed by the National Park Authority—the area provides countless opportunities for outdoor exploration. During the coronavirus lockdown, daily use of these traffic-free trails nearly doubled to 4,000, totaling almost 230,000 visits over three months. The Trans-Pennine Trail, part of the E8 European Walking Route, even links the park to the Turkish border, making the Peak District a gateway to one of the longest walking routes in the world.
The millstone, a symbol deeply rooted in the Peak District’s heritage, serves as the emblem of the National Park, prominently featured on its boundary markers and logo. With origins that trace back to before the Norman Conquest and mentions in the Domesday Book of 1086, millstone production in the area has a history stretching as far back as the Roman period. Quarrying for gritstone began in the 12th and 13th centuries and continued well into the 19th century, supplying stones used not only for grinding corn but also for sharpening tools in industrial hubs like Sheffield and even crushing timber for wood pulp exported to Scandinavia. Evolving in form over time, earlier mushroom-shaped stones—possibly unique to the region—gave way to the more familiar cylindrical millstones of the 18th and 19th centuries, used to grind grains such as oats, barley, and rye, reflecting the Peak District’s long-standing relationship with industry and agriculture.
Once a tropical lagoon millions of years ago, the Peak District still bears the fossilized remains of ancient sea creatures, visible even at its highest peaks. Human influence on this landscape stretches back at least 6,000 years, when early farmers began cultivating sheep, cattle, and crops—a tradition that continued into the 20th century, with around half a million farm animals in the region. The name "Peak" is thought to come not from the uplands but from the Pecsaetan, an Anglo-Saxon tribe that once settled here. Rich in cultural heritage, the area provided the lead used in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and is home to historic landmarks like Peveril Castle in Castleton, built by Henry II in 1176 and now managed by English Heritage. The landscape is a living archive of human history, marked by ancient field systems, dry stone walls, Roman terraces, medieval fortresses, and prehistoric burial mounds and stone circles.
