Day Walks in The Peak District - 20 New Circular Walks

As the name of this guide suggests the aim of this book is to provide routes that will take up a whole day, or at least the bigger part of it. As the authors discuss in the introduction, there are any number of Peak District guides for shorter walks, but the ‘middle distance’ walker hasn’t been so well provided for. The authors decided to help put this right in their first volume of ‘Day Walks’, this is a second volume, hence the sub-title of ‘20 new walks’ for this volume. (Sadly, before publication of this book, Barry Pope has died).

The walks are spread throughout the Peak District, covering such diverse terrain as Black Hill in the ‘Dark Peak’, northern area to Dove Dale in the limestone ‘White Peak country in the south. The routes include moors, dales, hills, reservoirs, villages and rivers. The walks vary from 8 3/4 to 12 3/4 miles. Each walk is prefaced by a walk summary, parking details and a description of the walk and the area through which the route takes you. The instructions are clear and well laid-out. They are numbered, with a corresponding number on the accompanying map, to help you keep track of where you are. The colour maps are taken from OS 1:25000 scale mapping.

The majority of the walks can be followed using the instructions and the accompanying route map, although the authors advise you always to carry the appropriate OS map. At certain points, on a few of the more exposed upland moorland walks, you may occasionally have to follow a compass bearing (supplied), especially in bad weather. (One such point; leaving Black Hill summit, going south towards Tooleyshaw Moss - an easy area to go astray).

This attractive and useful book is generously illustrated with lovely colour photos throughout (by Barry Pope, Maureen Pope, Norman Taylor, John Coefield and Jon Barton). An appendix gives information on local cafés, pubs, campsites etc. Even if you think you know the Peak District well, I'm sure you'll find routes in here that may be new to you.