The Tissington Trail from Hartington

The Peak District National Park Authority bought the line in 1971 and turned it into the traffic-free trail it is now. Hartington’s old station, about 1.5 miles east of the village, closed to regular passengers in 1954 and for good in 1963; the platforms are gone, but the LNWR signal box survives, restored as a small seasonal visitor centre, and the trackbed is now the Tissington Trail. The full trail runs 13 miles between Ashbourne in the south and Parsley Hay in the north, where it joins the High Peak Trail, but there is no need to commit to anything like the whole distance to enjoy it.

Crushed limestone forms the surface, firm and level in the way only a former railway can be, with none of the stiles, mud or navigation that complicate most Peak District walking. It suits wheelchair users, mobility scooters and pushchairs as well as walkers and cyclists, and bike hire is available at several points along the trail for anyone who would rather ride than walk.

Heading north from Hartington station, the trail climbs so gradually toward Parsley Hay that a railway gradient is the only way the ascent registers at all. Heading south takes you toward Tissington and eventually Ashbourne. Neither direction offers the drama of the White Peak’s limestone dales lower down, since the old railway was built along the high ground rather than through it, but that is exactly why it is so easy: no dale means no descent and no climb back out.

This suits anyone who wants distance and fresh air without effort, or who is touring the dales with someone who cannot manage stiles and steep paths. It does not suit anyone who came for the region’s more dramatic scenery; for that, Wolfscote Dale is a few minutes away by car.