Making the best of a school inset day, my daughter and I headed off to find some dog friendly campsites in the Peak District. The aim being to distribute as many of our new postcards as possible. We started in Buxton, and after having taken Tilly for a lovely walk around Grinlow Woods, we called in to Buxton Caravan Club Site, which is based in an old quarry next to Grinlow Woods.  One of the lovely things that I noticed, was the offer to pick your own herbs from a fresh herb garden, situated near the entrance of the park.

All the herbs were clearly marked, so you could see what was available before you picked it fresh for your dinner.  I noticed later in the day, when we visited dog friendly campsites around Ashbourne, that the same was offered in the Carsington Water Caravan site, so I think it must be something that the Caravan Club is trying to promote – a lovely touch I thought.

From Grinlow we travelled the short distance to the Lime Tree Holiday park, which can be found close to the viaduct in Buxton on Dukes Drive. It is also a very convenient short walk to the local Morrison’s supermarket! A lovely lady met us at Reception and instantly recognised our website. She even had one of our logos on display in the information room. I promised to drop off one of our shiny new window stickers, as the postcard she had in the window was looking a little faded – it must be all the sun that Buxton gets!!!  Dogs are made to feel very welcome here, and even get their own “Dear Dogs” letter when they first arrive on campsite, signed from “all your friends at Lime Tree Park”.

Back in the car, we reviewed our list and decided to drive up the A6 towards Taddington and found Beechcroft Farm at Blackwell. It is possible to access the Limestone Way which is very close to the entrance of this site. As we drove past the campsite and towards Reception, my daughter was “oohing and aahing” over the impressive sight of a rather large motor home, which had stopped overnight at the campsite. Having deposited some more postcards, we continued to the Royal Oak, near Hurdlow, which has a campsite and some camping barns, adjacent to the High Peak trail, a long distance cycle and walking route. The pub is very dog friendly and people were already arriving in a steady stream for Monday lunch time.  I noticed from a leaflet that I picked up later in the day, that the Royal Oak is indeed an award winning pub, having scooped the winning prize of Traditional Pub of the Year at the Derbyshire Food and Drink awards 2013. Perhaps the reason for the steady stream of visitors….

Having visited the pub, we got back in the car and headed towards Longnor the place for our next visit. Longnor Wood is situated just outside the pretty village of Longnor (which always reminds me of Last of the Summer Wine…) and is strictly adults only – so my daughter was instructed to stay in the car whilst I deposited more postcards on site. It is certainly a rural site, with cute little brown rabbits sat in the fields watching us as we drove by – thankfully they didn’t see the big black hound in the boot, looking with great interest at the sight of these cuddly little bunnies. There were plenty of signs for dog walks and handily positioned poop bins for dog owners to use. This dog friendly caravan site was very peaceful and tranquil and situated in a lovely rural location –  beautiful, but you can only use it as long as you don’t bring the children. Now there’s a thought……

The drive was now taking us much further from the centre of Buxton, but still just about within the Buxton area, we travelled across to Bank House Farm at Hulme End. You’ll probably cross the Staffordshire border at this stage, but soon hop across back into Derbyshire. Bank House farm is well signed from the hamlet that is Hulme End. According to the campsite owner, there is a very dog friendly pub just across from the Campsite (The Manifold Inn) which has WiFi. I doubt you’d get a mobile signal from the campsite itself, and the facilities do seem very basic, but it is situated in stunning countryside and is a real “get away from it all” place.

The final dog friendly campsite that we visited, which I still classify as Buxton, but really it could be on the Ashbourne list as well, (since it is reasonably close to Ashbourne), is the Newhaven camping and Caravanning site. This is situated close to the A515 which is the main Ashbourne to Buxton through route.  This seemed to be a very mature campsite and had a strict one way system to navigate around the park. There was an information room where we managed to put some of our postcards, and also pinned a business card on their wall.  Whilst the campsite seemed pretty full, most people were out for the day, no doubt appreciating the local walking scenery. This site is very close to the High Peak trail and I quite often meet up with family and go for a dogwalk along the trail from Friden, past the brick works and beyond.

Our next mission was to visit all the Ashbourne dog friendly campsites, but since we were both getting very hungry and the dog needed to stretch her legs, we decided that a lunch stop was in order. Now which dog friendly pub could we visit………