CASTLETON may well be the Peak District’s worst-kept secret. Surrounded by picture-postcard scenes beloved by landscape photographers, this village sits pretty in the embrace of the hillwalking high points of our first national park. Locals may roll their eyes at its packed pavements and populated beer gardens, especially during school holidays, but it’s easy to explain its mass appeal.
From the village – a quintessentially English collection of quaint stone cottages and cafés – footpaths will take you directly up into the rolling hills, steep gorges and expansive moorland plateaus. From here, you may glimpse a mountain hare – the only UK population outside the Scottish Highlands – a red deer, a ring ouzel or perhaps a peregrine.
It doesn’t take long for you to reach those big sky wildlife habitats and scenic vistas. Part of the beauty of the Peak is the compact
