The Peak District sprawls across five counties and 555 square miles. It became the UK’s first national park in 1951. Mixing the wild moorlands of the Dark Peak and the limestone dales of the White Peak, the south-west Staffordshire corner of the national park is a patchwork of waterfalls, blanket bogs, farmland, heath and high, craggy outcrops of wind-carved gritstone.
From the Three Horseshoes pub, on the edge of the national park and near the old textile town of Leek, you can walk up the road to follow a loop along the cascading River Churnet to Ramshaw Rocks and across country to the Roaches for unbelievably big views. To avoid the roadside half-mile to start, you could catch occasional bus 16 for one stop or park near Upper Hulme. The rest of the walk is on quiet lanes, paths and tracks and is spectacular. On a fine day, energetic hikers could make it all the way through Gradbach Wood to the mossy chasm known as Lud’s Church, but I am setting off in blustery drizzle and this seven-mile route is quite adventurous enough.
