Distance: 12.3 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: hard
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox (alternative route avoiding Dovedale Stepping Stones for if the level of the River Dove is high OS Maps/GPX. file)
Walk from the Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne to the pictureaque Peak District of Hartington following the River Dove north along the spectacularly beautiful sometimes sublime Dovedale gorges.
The Story
Route Notes
Getting Back
Amongst the Pinacles of the Peak
Out of all the natural tourist attractions in the Midlands few are as lauded and widely visited as Dovedale.
And for good reason. The limestone dale, formed during the ice age, and now the location of the River Dove, a major tributary of the River Trent, that forms the administrative boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire, is truly spectacular.
Officially Dovedale is the name given to the lower reaches of the deep, steep sided valley, which begins just south of Hartington, and winds its way down via the hamlet of Milldale to a point roughly equidistant between the village of Thorpe in Derbyshire and Ilam in Staffordshire. The more northerly parts closer to Hartington have other names like Beresford Dale and Wolfscote Dale. Though, given that the valley, despite being quite different in character from each other, interlock, and provide a channel for the same river, it is easy to see that they are an interconnected system.
The area is situated very close to the bottom of the Pennine chain of hills which provides the northern half of England with its spin. The range’s bony limestone coccyx if you like. In this way the limestone countryside, known as the White Peak which comprises the area’s terrain, is a foretaste of some of the spectacular limestone landscapes further up the Pennines like that encountered in the Yorkshire Dales.
Dovedale is approached from the south via a narrow gap between Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill. Two peaks one that slightly tops 300 metres above sea level, another slightly below, yet both are shaped in such a way, and have a degree of prominence, which makes them seem far more mountainous, than is in fact the case. A trait which they share with the Weaver Hills which rise out the relative flatness of eastern central Staffordshire, east of the River Trent, a little to the south, marking the mostly southerly extent of the Pennine range.
Since 2006 Dovedale has been recognised as a National Nature Reserve due to the uniqueness of its natural habitat and the range of species it supports. This is despite Dovedale lying at the heart of a thriving tourism industry, one which draws millions of people each year. During the 1930s and 1940s the National Trust bought up much of the River Dove’s dales and the surrounding hills including Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill. This has preserved their wild aspect, but due to the area’s relative proximity to major centres of population like Derby, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent, the area has been a popular daytripping destination and holiday location since the late 19th Century, and widely lauded prior to that. Indeed, in the form of the book The Complete Angler by early sporting angler, Izaak Walton, the River Dove where it flows through the dale was being hailed at a leisure location as far back as the 17th Century. Excluding the use of parts of the Peak District as hunting forest by monarchs and aristocrats in the middle ages, this was perhaps the earliest use and promotion of the region for a leisure activity, predating the romantic poets by roughy a century.
On one weekend day in 1990 a walkers survey counted over 9,000 people using footpaths in Dovedale, four decades later, it is doubtful that these numbers have decreased, indeed likely quite the reverse. The most popular feature in Dovedale (besides Thorpe Cloud, whose 296 metre summit was once described to me by a taxi driver from Walsall as a peak that is “achievable”) are the stepping stones, handily located only several hundred metres from the footpath. Long before Instagram and TikTok added to their legend, they were in danger of being worn away due to sheer footfall, leading to the National Trust and county councils, controversially capping them with a mixture of limestone and cement. In wet weather they are often impassable, testimony to the power of nature in what is sometimes (entirely unfairly) derided as a sanitised, over visited, part of the Peak District.
Route Notes
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox (alternative route avoiding Dovedale Stepping Stones for if the level of the River Dove is high OS Maps/GPX. file)
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
This walk from Ashbourne to Hartington, along the full length of the spectacular limestone Dovedale, following the River Dove, begins from Ashbourne Bus Station on the southern edge of the town centre.
To start the walk head to the southern portal of the former railway tunnel which leads below Ashbourne town centre to the top of the Tissington Trail.
The Tissington Trail, like the former railway tunnel beneath the town, was constructed in the late 1890s as part of a line which wound its way north from Ashbourne to Buxton across the White Peak. The route played a key part in making the southern Peak District a popular leisure destination, but closed in 1967, subsequently being turned into a mixed use trail by Derbyshire County Council which opened in 1971.
Follow the Tissington Trail away from Ashbourne heading uphill for a little distance.
Soon you turn off the Tissington Trail and past a large campsite following a ridge across fields heading towards the boundary of the Peak District National Park.
Soon you turn off the Tissington Trail and past a large campsite following a ridge across fields heading towards the boundary of the Peak District National Park.
Presently ahead of you Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill loom on the horizon.
You steadily approach the distinctive hills, descending a deep dale, to reach the little village of Thorpe which sits at the base of Thorpe Cloud.
If the waters of the River Dove are likely to be low enough to enable you to cross via the Dovedale Stepping Stones: once you reach Thorpe, you head through the village to a snicket to reach a footpath which runs downhill to the side of the River Dove, near where it converges with the River Manifold.
Upon reaching the Dove, turn right and follow the river towards Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill which stand guard as the jaws of Dovedale.
On reaching the bottom of Dovedale cross the river by means of a footbridge to the Staffordshire side, and follow the path straight ahead into Dovedale.
Soon you reach the stepping stones which you use to cross the river back into Derbyshire.
An alternative you route you can take if the waters of the Dove are likely to be too high to cross by the Dovedale Stepping Stones goes via the back of Thorpe Cloud.
Before heading out onto the National Trust’s land just up from Dovedale.
This leads to a wild dale steadily sloping down towards the River Dove.
Having crossed the Dove by means of the stepping stones, continue straight along the path, passing spectacular limestone formations, caves and rapids deeper into the dale.
Presently after several miles of walking you reach the little hamlet of Milldale on the Staffordshire side of the river noted for its ancient packhorse bridge, and well preserved mill, now a National Trust visitor centre.
North of Milldale continue walking along the quiet road which runs away from the village closely following the course of the River Dove.
Soon beside some old mill buildings you cross the river again and then head onto a footpath running along the river towards Wolfscote Dale.
Reaching Wolfscote Dale you will notice that its character is quite different from Dovedale to the south, in that its sides are steeper, but also smoother, with fewer of the bizarre and spectacular limestone formations.
At the top of Wolfscote Dale you enter flatter country, with steep hills further into the Peak District visible on the horizon in the middle distance.
Crossing into Staffordshire again you enter the final shortest dale on the walk, Beresford Dale, which is more like Dovedale in character, being narrow, the Dove fast flowing, and there being numerous limestone formations like stalactites.
At the end of Beresford Dale you reach fields, the edge of Hartington and the end of the walk coming into view.
You follow a well worn footpath to the edge of Hartington.
Once in the village turn right making of the main square which is lined with shops, tea rooms and two pubs with rooms. The village also has a large YHA youth hostel.
The square in Hartington is where this walk ends.
Getting Back
At the time of writing in March 2025 on weekdays and Saturdays (there are no Sunday or bank holiday services) a bus runs around six times a day too and from Ashbourne to Buxton via Hartington. This bus is the only service serving the village. Ashbourne has numerous buses serving neighbouring towns and villages in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, including Derby and Uttoexeter which have main line railway stations. Buxton is a hub for buses to eastern Staffordshire and Cheshire, as well as north and west across Derbyshire and into Greater Manchester. There are also main line trains north which call at New Mills, Stockport and Manchester Picadilly for services elsewhere on the national railway network.