A week in Bakewell without a hard day
Two viewpoints, two dales, nothing that needs fitness.
One base: Bakewell. You unpack once.
- Nights
- 6
- Best in
- Spring, Summer, Autumn
- Families
- First-time hill walkers
- Couples
Bakewell is the largest town inside the Peak District, and it works as a base for people who want the national park without wanting a hard day in it. The A6 and A619 cross the River Wye here on the medieval Bakewell Bridge, and the town has the widest range of shops and cafes of any base in this guide, useful on the days when nothing else is booked. Two of this trip’s four stops need no walking at all, and the other two are short, flat, and rated easy. Six nights gives the week room to be unhurried.
Who this suits
Families with young children, first-time visitors to the Peak District, and anyone booking a week around a cottage rather than a mountain. Monsal Head and Curbar Edge are both reachable straight from a car park, so they suit anyone who wants the view without needing to climb for it, and the Monsal Trail’s old railway gradient means the walking day is flatter than anywhere else in this guide. Lathkill Dale is the only one of the four with any descent, and even that amounts to the walk down into the dale and back out again.
What this trip skips
This is deliberately not a walking holiday. Nobody who wants Kinder Scout, Stanage Edge or a hard day on gritstone should expect to find it here; Bakewell suits families and easy, low-level walking, and this itinerary sticks to that brief on purpose. Anyone who tires of easy scenery by day three has the whole rest of the White Peak within a short drive, but that’s a different, harder trip than the one built here.
Day by day
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Day 1
Settle in, walk the old railway
Bakewell's former station at Coombs Road, closed since 1968, marks the start of the Monsal Trail, a flat, surfaced path along the old Midland Railway line. Hassop, the next former station, makes a natural turning point four miles out, though there's no obligation to go anything like that far on the first day.
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Day 2
Monsal Head, no walking required
A short drive northwest puts you at Monsal Head's car park, looking straight down on Headstone Viaduct and the dale it once scandalised Victorian opinion by crossing. A hotel, a pub and a couple of cafes sit right at the viewpoint, so this is as much a lunch stop as a sightseeing one.
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Day 3
Lathkill Dale from Over Haddon
From Over Haddon the path drops into a National Nature Reserve where the River Lathkill runs clear over limestone, past two historic bridges and a Victorian weir. Dippers and kingfishers work the river, and the whole loop is short enough for a morning without feeling rushed.
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Day 4
Curbar Edge, another view from the car park
Curbar Gap car park is at the top of the edge, so the gritstone and the view over the Derwent Valley to Chatsworth's parkland are a few minutes from the car rather than a hike. It's also a working climbing venue, so expect to watch a climb in progress a few metres from where you're standing.
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Day 5
Free day in town
Bakewell has held a market since a charter of 1254, and the Rutland Arms still tells the story of the Bakewell pudding, not tart, invented there by accident around 1820. A day with nothing booked suits the town as well as any of the dales around it.
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Day 6
Depart, or one more easy loop
Whichever of the week's four stops suited best is worth a slower second visit on the last morning, especially Monsal Head if the weather has been kind, before the drive home.
Where to stay for this trip
All within a short drive of Bakewell, so the day plans above still work.
