Dovedale - The Most Beautiful Valley in the Peak District?

Is this the most beautiful valley in the Peak District National Park? Quite possibly. Today we are having a run down the River Dove From Milldale through Dovedale.

It’s a popular spot, I’d suggest going in the week outside holiday season as it gets more than a million visitors a year I believe. The scale of the scenery is just epic, we are in the White Peak and the valley has been formed by glacial melt water carving a path through the Limestone and leaving craggy shapes and caves in the rock.

Geology

The limestone here was produced by the fossilised remains of sea creatures that lives here some 350 million years ago. Since then two ice ages have been and gone with glacial melt water eating away at the limestone leaving behind dry caves like Doveholes and Reynards Cave and rock spires like Ilam Rock and Pickering Tor.

The River Dove

A popular trout fishing spot, the river Dove rises at Axe Edge Moor near Buxton and joins the River Manifold not far from here at Ilam. The river forms the border between Staffordshire (Ilam side) and Derbyshire. We join at Milldale, grab an ice cream from Pollys Cottage and sit beside the river before crossing Viator (Travellers) Bridge and heading down the valley beside the river.

Human History

We’ve been walking these paths for thousands of years with hunters using the caves for shelter dating back to 13,000 BCE and Neolithic farmers used the caves as tombs.

Doveholes

We pause to look at Doveholes, a dry cave right beside the river carved out when the river was higher at the end of the ice age.

Ilam Rock & Pickering Tor

A little further along is a footbridge that lets you cross to take a look at Ilam Rock a limestone rock spire, on the the opposite side is another rock spire, Pickering Tor.

Reynards Cave

I missed this one, just after the walkway at the straits, there is a path off to the left which takes you up to Reynards Cave, a dry cave like Doveholes. It boggles the brain to think of the volume of glacial melt water that must have flowed through here.

Lovers Leap

Next the path climbs up a little and gives you a view across the valley to the Twelve Apostles Rock Spires at Lovers Leap. The story goes that during the Napoleonic Wars a girl who thought her lover had died in the war threw herself off here but got her skirt caught in the branches of a tree and survived, on returning home she discovered her lover had in fact survive too. 

Stepping Stones

At a bend in the river by Thorpe Cloud we cross some stepping stones which was great fun, dogs seem to love swimming across beside the stones. For those not brave enough there is a wooden bridge a little further down near the Dovedale Car Park at Ilam.

Bunster Hill

At this point we take a right and head along the side of and then over Bunster Hill, its a rough path and a good hard climb but you are rewarded with views down towards Ilam Hall, a victorian Neogothic stately home that is now a YHA hostel I believe. Crossing the hill we head up towards Ilam Tops before dropping back down to the river.

In summary, you should definitely put this on your bucket list.