Three Shires Head

Three Shires Head is the spot up on the moors where three counties (Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire) come together at once, on the young River Dane in the Peak District. A low stone packhorse bridge crosses the river here, and just below it the water slides over rock ledges into a couple of clear pools, one of them known as Panniers Pool. It’s a walkers’ junction more than a big waterfall, with modest falls but a fine place to sit. Being on the meeting point of three county jurisdictions once made it useful to people up to no good: prize-fighters and gamblers are said to have gathered here, able to skip across into the next county if one force of constables turned up. You reach it on foot across the moor, with Flash, often called the highest village in Britain, a mile or so to the southeast.