A national park half an hour from the city by train, and the reason the right to roam exists in England.
Manchester is the only major English city with a national park inside commuting distance, and the trains go there. From Piccadilly you can be at a trailhead in forty minutes.
The Peak District became Britain’s first national park in 1951, and it did so because of an argument that started here.
The Kinder trespass
Until the 1930s the high moors of the Dark Peak were private grouse moor, patrolled by keepers, and walkers were kept off. Manchester and Sheffield had a large working population who got two days off a fortnight and wanted to spend them somewhere that was not a mill town, and the land they could see from their windows was closed to them.
On 24 April 1932 several hundred walkers, organised largely by the British Workers’ Sports Federation, walked deliberately up onto Kinder Scout from Hayfield. There were scuffles with keepers. Five men were imprisoned, one for four months, and the sentences caused a national outcry.
The mass trespass is generally credited as the decisive moment in the campaign that produced the national parks and, eventually, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. When you walk on open access land anywhere in England, this is why.
Where to go, by train
Edale — the southern end of the Pennine Way, and the standard start for Kinder Scout, the highest ground in the park at 636 metres. The Jacob’s Ladder route up and Grindsbrook down is a proper day’s walk with steep sections and no shelter on top.
Hope — for Mam Tor, the ridge walk to Lose Hill, and the Great Ridge, which is the postcard.
Castleton — reached by bus from Hope, with four show caves, the ruins of Peveril Castle, and Blue John stone found nowhere else on earth.
Hathersage — swimming pool, Little John’s grave in the churchyard, and gritstone edges above.
Grindleford — for Padley Gorge, which is woodland and stream and much gentler than the moors.
Being sensible about it
The Dark Peak is peat moorland, not a park. The weather changes fast, visibility on Kinder can drop to nothing, and the plateau is a maze of peat groughs where people genuinely get lost within sight of a city of three million.
Take boots, waterproofs, food, water, a paper map and a compass, and do not rely on a phone. Check the forecast on the summit rather than in Manchester.
There is no shame in the valley walks. Padley Gorge, the Hope Valley floor and the Monsal Trail are lovely and require none of the above.
