From the archives
While we take a summer break there’s still plenty of Peakrill Walks to read.
We are so grateful for everyone who reads our emails, follows us on the socials or comes on our walks. It is such a pleasure to share the Peak District history, folklore and culture we love with other people.
In May and June we’ve brought old stories about our home to six events, published our usual four written posts, and been on holiday. So we need a break in July to catch up and make sure the next walk is worth your time…
We’ve been sharing walks for over a year now and we’re delighted that we’ve built up to more than 200 of you reading them each month. That means if you’d like something to explore this month, there’s still plenty of walks to be found in our archive that many readers weren’t around for the first time.
Here are a few recommendations:
One of our first ever walks visited Tideswell around Wakes Week last year, to explore this custom on foot and through food.
Tideswell Dale // Wakes cakes, carnivals... and saints?
Driving around the Peak Districts roads from spring through to summer, you’ll see posters cable-tied to road signs and banners staked on junctions, each advertising the nearby ‘Wakes Week’, ‘Wakes Day’ carnival or just the village ‘Wakes’.
July is the perfect time to pick Bilberries. Parts of our beautiful uplands will be awash with juicy purple berries. I remember picking them in the summer holidays as a child, but the problem I have now is that not enough make it home, as they have a habit of being eaten on the way.
Bonus edition: A rhapsody on Bilberries
Bilberry is a low growing plant found in the uplands and moors, usually tumbling down hillsides in massed drifts or spreading in a carpet either side of a gritty Dark Peak footpath. It’s rarely found in the South of England and hardly known about there, so it’s a proper northern fruit, our secret alternative to the blueberry, that begins growing somewhe…
John Flamsteed has an incredible life story, from a childhood cooped up in his house in Derby, through service to the king, to mathematics that changed the way we experience the world.
One of our walks last summer took a more biographical angle than usual, to celebrate this unsung Derbyshire hero.
Surprise View & Longshaw // John Flamsteed, a Derbyshire hero through time and space
With a rustle, a click and a puff, I’m pitched. My little tent is up, mat inflated, sleeping bag unrolled. A breeze whispers over canvas. I clip the lid on a tupperware, pour a hot cup of cardamom tea and lean against a rock. The dog, confused that he isn’t home in his favourite fluffy bed, squeezes up next to me.
We hope you find something to enjoy reading. We’ll be back with a new post on the first Friday in August.
Enjoy some fantastic summer walking in the Peak District!