Places to explore near Buxton

Elegant spa town of Georgian crescents and a domed Opera House, England's highest market town, built on its warm mineral spring.

0 km N · Derbyshire

Twenty-three acres of Victorian park around a domed pavilion of 1871.

0.8 km W

Two-million-year-old limestone cavern on the edge of Buxton, with a source of the River Wye and rare 'poached-egg' stalactites.

1.4 km SW

Victorian fortified tower on Grin Low above Buxton, built as a folly on a Bronze Age burial mound with wide-ranging views.

1.9 km S

Britain's first national park: gritstone edges in the Dark Peak, limestone dales in the White.

2.3 km E

The Pennines for horse and bike — old packhorse trails and drovers' roads.

5.1 km E · spans 6 counties

Dragon's-back reef limestone ridge in the upper Dove valley, a sharp-crested fossil-reef hill with dramatic sunrise views.

6.7 km S

The packhorse bridge and pools where Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire meet — once handy for prize-fighters dodging three county constabularies at once.

7.2 km SW

Deep limestone dale where the Wye squeezes between crags, crossed by stepping stones beneath overhanging cliffs.

8 km E

Large upland village built on wool and lead, its 14th-century church so grand it is called the 'Cathedral of the Peak'.

9.2 km E · Derbyshire

Wooded reservoir valley west of Buxton, with the ruins of Errwood Hall and moorland walks up to Shining Tor.

9.3 km NW

The largest surviving inland canal port in the country, a scheduled monument where the Peak Forest Canal met the tramway down from the limestone quarries.

9.5 km NW

Deep mossy chasm hidden in woodland above the Dane, a fairytale cleft of dripping rock linked to the Green Knight and Lollard worship.

10.8 km SW

Spectacular gritstone escarpment on the Dark Peak edge, its wind-carved crags climbing to 505m with views to Wales and a hidden pool below.

11.4 km SW

Jagged gritstone ridge beside the Leek–Buxton road, its tilted pinnacles including the famous winking 'Winking Man' rock.

11.8 km S

The 517m 'Shivering Mountain' above Castleton, an Iron Age hillfort crowning the great Hope Valley ridge walk.

12 km NE

Natural show cave in the hillside above Castleton, one of the only places on earth where the banded Blue John stone is mined.

12 km NE

Show cave prized for its stalactites and richest Blue John veins, still worked for a few hundred kilos of the stone each year.

12 km NE

Dramatic limestone cleft climbing out of Castleton between towering pinnacles, its name a worn form of 'wind gates'.

12.1 km NE

Flooded former lead mine at the foot of Winnats Pass, reached by an underground boat trip to a vast Bottomless Pit.

12.1 km NE

The best-preserved lead mine in Britain, its Cornish engine house and chimney standing stark on the fields above Sheldon.

12.4 km SE

The first and toughest of them all — 268 miles along England's rocky spine from the Peak to the Cheviots.

12.5 km N · spans 8 counties

Long known as the Devil's Arse, it has the largest cave entrance in Britain and once sheltered a whole rope-makers' village.

12.6 km NE

Whitewashed sugar-loaf folly on Kerridge Hill above Bollington, built to mark Waterloo, with wide views over plain, Pennines and Wales.

12.6 km W

The classic view down Monsal Dale to the 1863 Headstone Viaduct — reviled by Ruskin, listed by the state, walked by everyone on the Monsal Trail.

12.6 km E

Dry limestone gorge cut into the hill behind Castleton, overlooked by the keep of Peveril Castle.

12.6 km NE

Norman keep perched above Castleton and Cave Dale.

12.6 km NE

Steep gritstone tor at the southern end of the Roaches, a bold outcrop with sweeping views over Tittesworth Reservoir.

13 km SW

Hope Valley village ringed by four show caves and the ruined Peveril Castle, the only place Blue John stone is mined.

13.1 km NE · Derbyshire

Palladian mansion and moorland deer park.

13.2 km NW

Compact White Peak village around a green with a duck pond, medieval cross and bull ring, one of the prettiest in the Peak.

13.4 km E · Derbyshire

The southern start of the Pennine Way, tucked in a green valley below the brooding plateau of Kinder Scout.

13.5 km NE · Derbyshire

Microbrewery and gin distillery with a shop and tasting room at Ashford-in-the-Water, brewing Peak District cask ales since 2003.

13.8 km E

Chocolate-box limestone village on the River Wye, famous for its packhorse Sheepwash Bridge and the medieval tradition of well dressing.

13.9 km E · Derbyshire

Peak District's highest plateau, site of the Mass Trespass.

14.2 km N

Handsome White Peak village at the head of Dovedale, long the home of Derbyshire cheese-making with a duck pond and market square.

14.8 km SE · Derbyshire

Popular reservoir below the Roaches with a shore trail, visitor centre and grand views up to the gritstone edge.

15.2 km SW

Quiet limestone dale and national nature reserve, its clear river rising from cave mouths and flowing past old lead workings.

16 km SE

The gritstone 'plague village' that quarantined itself in 1665-66, its cottages still marked with the names of the dead.

16.2 km E · Derbyshire

The Peak District's only true market town, straddling the Wye with a medieval bridge and the shops that gave the Bakewell pudding its name.

16.4 km E · Derbyshire

Hushed village of pools and old halls, its timbered Gawsworth Hall and church of St James rising above a picturesque mere.

17.6 km W · Cheshire

Two-mile reservoir in wooded hills near Leek, ringed by a shore path and served by a miniature steam railway, its name borrowed by Kipling's parents.

17.9 km SW

Flight of sixteen canal locks and a towering stone aqueduct where the Peak Forest Canal climbs out of the Goyt valley.

18.1 km NW

Finest surviving fortified medieval manor in England.

18.5 km E

Gritstone edge high above Bamford, giving one of the most celebrated views over Ladybower Reservoir and the Hope Valley.

18.6 km NE

Dark Peak village below Stanage Edge, with Little John's reputed grave and Charlotte Bronte connections that fed Jane Eyre.

18.6 km NE · Derbyshire

An Edwardian manor-house restaurant with rooms on the edge of the Peak District near Chatsworth.

18.7 km E

A heated 1936 open-air pool in the Hope Valley, with its original bandstand beside the water and open all year.

18.8 km NE

Dambusters crews trained over the dams and drowned villages of this Derwent Valley reservoir in the Peak District.

18.9 km NE

A sixty-foot symmetrical cave mouth punched through a limestone crag above the Manifold valley — occupied since the Stone Age, photographed since the Victorians.

19 km S

Wooded gritstone edge above Froggatt village, running north from Curbar with climbing crags and moorland views.

19 km E

A model estate village of mismatched styles, rebuilt by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1839 within Chatsworth Park.

19.2 km E · Derbyshire

Thought to be Britain's largest landslip, over half a mile long, its gritstone towers looking like a ruined castle above remote Alport Dale.

19.7 km NE

Twin gritstone pinnacles near Birchover, also called Mock Beggar's Hall, ringed by prehistoric stones and old packhorse ways.

19.9 km SE

Gritstone edge sheltering the village below, with sweeping views over the Derwent Valley and a scatter of abandoned millstones.

20 km E

Wooded sandstone escarpment steeped in legend.

20 km W

A small, timeless Peak District village pub, national Unspoilt Pub of the Year 2019.

20.2 km SE

Grand Devonshire seat with cascade and fountains.

20.3 km E

The middle of three Derwent Valley reservoirs in the Peak District, its stone dam a Dambusters training ground below Bleaklow.

20.4 km NE

A four-mile gritstone escarpment above Hathersage, the spiritual home of British rock climbing with vast views over the moors.

20.9 km NE

A tumble of gritstone outcrops behind Birchover, carved in the 18th century with rooms, steps and seats by an eccentric parson.

20.9 km SE

Bronze Age stone circle on Stanton Moor.

21.3 km SE

Overshot 16th-century watermill under a long stone roof near Alderley Edge, restored to working order by the National Trust.

21.8 km W

Fantastical Victorian world garden, Egypt and China.

21.8 km SW

Estate village at the foot of the Peak District, its Swiss-style Gothic cottages clustered below Ilam Hall where the Manifold and Dove valleys meet.

22.4 km S · Staffordshire

Twin waterwheels on the Caldon Canal that once ground flint for the pottery industry, a preserved working mill open to visitors.

22.7 km SW

Heritage steam line running through the wooded Churnet Valley from Cheddleton, nicknamed 'Staffordshire's Little Switzerland'.

23.5 km S

A mill estate whose valley garden drops to the River Bollin past restored glasshouses.

23.8 km W

Celebrated limestone ravine on the River Dove, its famous stepping stones crossing below the cone of Thorpe Cloud.

24.2 km S

Picture-book estate village around a Jacobean hall, celebrated for its six ancient wells dressed with flower petals each Ascension.

24.2 km SE · Derbyshire

Quiet village gathered round a triangular green and the great church of St Mary, near Congleton.

24.5 km SW · Cheshire

Winding limestone valley where the River Manifold vanishes underground in summer, followed by a traffic-free trail on the old light railway.

24.7 km S

A Site of Special Scientific Interest in Derbyshire.

1.6 km E

A National Trust place in Derbyshire.

5.2 km S

The highest hill in Cheshire.

6.6 km W

Through the White Peak's dales and plateau pastures from Castleton to Rocester on the Staffordshire border.

6.7 km NE · Derbyshire & Staffordshire

A National Nature Reserve in Derbyshire.

6.8 km NE

Timeless traditional local in Earl Sterndale, beneath the reef-knoll peaks of Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill.

7.4 km SE

A National Trust place in Derbyshire.

8.1 km N