A Long Weekend Getaway in the Peak District
With COVID-19 lockdown restrictions lifting in the UK, and the weather in London getting hotter and hotter, we planned a lovely family holiday to the Peak Cottage. It was such a nice feeling to breathe in the fresh countryside air, and hit some daily step targets for a change.
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| Earl Sterndale |
Trip Details
We chanced upon a semi-detached house called Dale View which was situated in Earl Sterndale, to the south of the Peak District, on Booking.com. It had three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a conservatory and garden. We paid just over £480 for two nights, which works out to be around £96 per person. I honestly couldn’t be more pleased with this cute little house, it had everything we needed and the views were spectacular. If you do book a stay here, make sure you walk towards the village and buy a box of fresh local eggs!
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| Twin Beds in Dale View |
Day 1
We travelled to Oxford to meet up with my family on Thursday evening, and set off on Friday at around 1PM. The drive was supposed to take 2.5 hours but we actually got lost a few times, so we didn’t arrive until just after 5:30PM. The house was sparkling clean when we arrived, and we set to work preparing our first BBQ of the trip, as the weather was sunny and warm - perfect for a BBQ.
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| Sheep, sheep, everywhere! |
Day 2
The second day started with a nice morning walk in the village. Despite the slightly creepy pub called The Quiet Woman with a headless woman on it’s sign, we had a lovely time admiring all the cute little cottages in the area.
After an early lunch, we jumped in the car to drive to our first destination: Mam Tor. We were not prepared for the weather change though, it was rainy, windy and very cold! As we were driving past the town of Buxton on our way to Mam Tor, we picked up some fleeces. Make sure to bring your waterproofs and long sleeves, even if the weather forecast is telling you it’ll be nice and warm.
The hike up to the peak of Mam Tor was tough, we were being blown all over the place. But it was worth it for the views we saw when we reached the top. The wind seemed to calm down when we reached the top as well, and lots of small groups of fellow hikers also sat down to enjoy the view.
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| View from Mam Tor |
We then got back in the car and drove to Stanage Edge, a place my dad (the only one who has been to the Peak District before) was raving about. You walk through some lovely meadows to reach the top of this cliff edge, passing by groups and families of climbers. We were very impressed by one climber bouldering his way up to the top.
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| Climbers at Stanage Edge |
The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the top, where there were big boulders everywhere. Instead of coming down the same way we went up, we actually went around from the right, where there’s a small path down.
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| Top of Stanage Edge |
We then headed home for our second BBQ of the trip.
Day 3
With a 10AM checkout, we were up at 8:30AM to clean the house, and eat some breakfast (an unconventional egg fried rice with the local eggs we bought and leftover rice from dinner the day before). Although our original plan was to just drive home on our last day, I realised that the Dovedale Stepping Stones were on the way, so we decided to make a short pitstop there. There’s a car park close by that charges £2, and we set out for one last adventure in the countryside.
It seems that a lot of people had the same idea, as we saw so many people walking by the small stream on the way to the stepping stones. It was still nice to have a walk around the area despite it being so busy, and we had the pleasure of seeing lots of dogs attempt to cross the stepping stones with their owners - with the majority having to be carried across as it was too slippery for them!
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| Dovedale Stepping Stones |
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