Our day in the Peak District was pretty much a wash out because of the gloomy weather. We left York late and had difficulty with the GPS, but we eventually found our way to Castleton. Lovely Castleton lies in Winnats Pass, a spectacular gash in the landscape, below the romantic ruins of 11^th century Peveril Castle, which gave Castleton its name. The old stone village is close to dramatic caves from which minerals such as Blue John, a unique local purple fluorspar, has been mined for centuries. Peveril Castle was built by William Peveril, an illegitimate son of William the Conqueror, who was immortalized by Sir Walter Scott’s 1825 novel Peveril of the Peak. 

Further down the valley, we passed through the attractive little village of Hope, with a fine 14^th century church, and on through the valley past a dramatic wall of red rock called Stanage Edge. At the church in Hathersage lies the grave of Little John, where, according to local legend, Robin Hood’s best friends is buried. 

Further south lies one of the grandest of Britain’s great houses, Chatsworth House, known as the ‘Palace of the Peak’. “A model of 18^th century elegance, the Palladian mansion of Chatsworth has been home to the Dukes and Duchesses of Devonshire since the early 1700s. The Elizabethan house, built in 1555 by Bess of Hardwick, was virtually replaced with the 1^st Duke of Devonshire’s baroque mansion of the late 17^th century, finished by the 6^th Duke in the 1820s. Truly palatial, the house has sumptuous furnishings and works of art, but is made still more magnificent by its setting, as the centerpiece of a majestic park created by “Capability” Brown in the 1760s with huge formal gardens with fountains, a maze, and cascading waterworks. The crowning feature is Joseph Paxton’s stunning Emperor Fountain, at 260 feet the tallest in Britain. Opposite the Chatsworth entrance, Edensor is a pretty model village. Before 1839 the village lay in full view of the big house, so the 6^th Duke had Paxton demolish it and rebuild it out of sight.”