Distance: 4.9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk from the Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne to the picturesque, deeply gothic, Ilam Park in the Staffordshire Peak District situated on the River Manifold near where it joins the River Dove.

Accessible Gothic

Ilam Hall, lying at the heart of Ilam Park in Staffordshire is a spectacular neo-gothic survival. A little like Chatsworth House, and less like other nearby great houses in the White Peak like Tissington Hall, Ilam Park stately home was radically remodelled from an earlier hall.

However, unlike Chatsworth reconstructed in the 18th Century by the Dukes of Devonshire in the ever popular neo-classical idiom, Ilam Hall often changed hands. It was the Conservative politician Jesse Watts-Russell who acquired the old hall in 1819 and had it remodelled in the then popular gothic style, especially amongst conservatives, to designs by John Shaw. Work to remodel and extend the hall was then undertaken between 1821 and 1826.

Ilam Park, surrounding the hall, takes the 18th Century idea of setting stately homes in idealised settings to new heights. The hall is situated on the edge of woodland flanking the craggy dale of the River Manifold just west of where it joins the River Dove just below Dovedale. Thorpe Cloud and the jaws of Dovedale are visible from the hall’s front porch rising in the distance above the steeple of Ilam’s Holy Cross Church. This ostensibly natural setting, making much of the exposed limestone cliffs that rise high above the Manifold, upon which Ilam Hall and its formal gardens sits, shows the romantic era’s embrace of the sublime beauty of the wilderness being incorporated into country estate design.

As well as reconstructing Ilam Hall and landscaping Ilam Park, Jesse Watts-Russell, also remodelled Ilam village, levelling the existing cottages in favour of Swiss style chalets. A type of housing which remains the predominant style of housing in the village. Interestingly, by the early 19th Century the craggy southern part of the White Peak around Ilam Park, especially Dovedale and the Manifold Valley, was being called little Switzerland, and the chalets are possibly a nod to that.

Later in the 19th Century the gothic style passed out of favour. By the 1920s Ilam Hall was uninhabited and gothic architecture widely reviled. An attempt in 1927 to turn it into a country house hotel foundered, possibly upon the rocks of the straightened times that followed the 1929 Wall Street Crash and resulting Great Slump, possibly upon the sheer scale of the property at that time. In 1932, little over a century after its remodelling was completed, the property was sold with a view to demolition. Key fixtures and fittings were removed for sale, and work to knock the hall down and salvage the remains for scrap commenced. Partway through demolition, when only the grand entrance, great hall, and service wings remained, the New Zealand industrialist Sir Robert McDougal stepped in to buy the hall and parkland. He donated the remaining parts of the building and the grounds to the National Trust, with the trust leasing the hall to the recently formed Youth Hostel Association (YHA). The YHA continues to operate the hall as a hostel to this day.

As well as leasing Ilam Hall to the YHA the National Trust maintains Ilam Hall as a country park. It is an integral part of the conservation charity’s White Peak estate, which also encompasses Dovedale. The charity also owns and cares for parts of the Manifold Valley including Ecton Hill. In this way Ilam Park, once the preserve of wealthy Tory MPs is now a democratised space, open to all who wish to visit and stay there.

Route Notes

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

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This walk from Ashbourne to Ilam Park in the Staffordshire Peak District 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.

Soon you reach the road bridge over the River Dove and pass the sign announcing you have arrived in Staffordshire.

Continue straight ahead along the road on the far side of the bridge.

The road towards Ilam is sometimes quiet, sometimes busy, though there are few tight bends, so drivers should have good visibility of people approaching them. Though, if the road feels unsafe due to the volume of traffic there are a couple of alternative footpaths to Ilam village accessible from the National Trust’s Dovedale car park.

After just under a mile you reach the sign for Ilam and soon you reach the cross beside the River Manifold, and the bridge carrying the road down from Blore, that marks the centre of the village.

Walk straight along the road until you reach the lodge on the left beside the driveway leading into Ilam Park.

Follow the driveway until you reach the front of the hall and the parkland beyond.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Ilam has no public transport connections. It is possible to retrace your steps back to Ashbourne to catch the bus from there, and at the time of writing there was a limited service on weekdays and Saturdays along the A52 between Ashbourne and Leek. It is also possible to walk a little further south to Mayfield, which is served by the frequent (half hourly on weekdays and Saturdays) service between Derby and Uttoxeter via Ashbourne.

Alternatively, at the time of writing, Tissington and Fenny Bentley on the A515 were served by a fairly frequent (on weekdays and Saturdays) service between Ashbourne and Buxton, via Hartington, Warslow and Longor.

To reach this bus head back to Ilam village.

Then on the eastern edge of the village pick up the footpath on the left which runs across fields towards Dovedale.

Cross the National Trust’s Dovedale car park, and head a short distance to the left up the valley, before turning right to cross the River Dove back into Derbyshire.

Follow the path on the far side of the river up past Thorpe Cloud.

Then head downhill beyond Thorpe Cloud towards Thorpe Pastures.

Follow a footpath to the left around the back of the sprawling Peveril of the Peak Hotel, and pick up the Limestone Way long distance footpath running to the left.