This weekend dog walk from Cromford Mill is one of our favourites.

It was back in June 2015 when Tilly, Mackie and I decided to do an experimental dog walk along Cromford Canal. The reason it was experimental was because dog walks became more tricky with two dogs! Particularly when one was only a puppy, albeit a big one at 12 months old. 

The walk I’m about to describe is approximately 3 miles long and took me about one hour. It has a steep uphill section, but is a real mixture of canal paths, woodland and road walking. Hopefully a little bit of everything for everyone.  There are also refreshment stops along the way too.

Details of the walk

1. Park at Cromford Wharf car park DE4 3RQ.  It is a pay and display car park. (Currently £1.60 for two hours).

2. At the canal, turn left and walk down towards High Peak Junction. Many people walk their dogs along here, and many of them will be off lead. There are poop bins to be found at High Peak junction and I’m pretty sure I passed one at the start of the canal walk at Cromford Wharf.  It’s approximately 1 mile to the High Peak Junction. There are refreshments served here if you wish.

3. Upon arriving at High Peak Junction, you need to turn right and cross the bridge (signposted Middleton Top). You should head behind the buildings, past a train carriage (on your left) and follow a path which is called the Sheep Pastures incline.  You will walk through a short tunnel onto the trail. This is the long steep part of the walk. Dogs are fine to be off lead once you are on this path.  The footpath that you are on, follows what was the Cromford and High Peak Railway. You will pass a “catch pit” which was designed to capture run away trains of which there were a few!

Roughly halfway…..

4. Continue walking up this hill and walk past the small brick building which will be on your right. It has a wooden sign next to it called The Dingle. Soon after, you will see a footpath sign on your right. This is where the High Peak Trail (which is what you are on) intersects with the Midshires Trail. You should bear left and walk up over the steep bank which is signposted to Intake Lane. You will notice that you are on what I can only describe as a bridge section. Once you turn left you will almost double back on yourself and effectively go underneath the High Peak Trail.

Follow the signpost to Cromford (turn left). You will walk underneath a small bridge (which goes under the High Peak Trail that you’ve just been on). Follow the track, again dogs are still OK off lead, but be aware that this track turns into a road very shortly.

5. Shortly after you walk under the bridge, you’ll come to a fork in the path. Take the right fork and continue following the track downhill. This path is marked by a yellow arrow which is part of the Derwent Valley walk.

6. The track peters out and becomes Intake Lane. Follow this lane downhill (ignoring all turnings) and eventually you will meet the A6, which is a very busy main road. Turn left along the A6 and walk up to the traffic light junction, be very careful of the traffic and keep your dogs on a short lead.   (Note: To avoid walking along the A6 pavement, there is a gap in the wall opposite Intake Lane, when you meet the A6. You will see a small green footpath sign. This path will cut the corner where the road junction is, but it might be quite tricky to cross the road at this point, so please take care if doing so).

7. At the junction, turn right into Mill Road and walk back towards the Cromford Wharf car park.

Refreshments

You will find several refreshment places on the Dog walk.

There is often an ice cream van in the car park at Cromford wharf, but there are also some coffee stops too. One of which is the Counting house coffee stop.

In addition you’ll find refreshments at the High Peak Junction which is 1 mile down the canal from the start of the walk.

Finally, you could walk across to Arkwright’s Mill opposite the Cromford Wharf car park, and you will find a cafe, toilets and some small shops to have a browse around.

Map of the area

If you want to explore the surrounding area a little more, then the OS map OL24 is the correct Ordnance Survey map to use.

Please note there are some affiliate links on this page. You will not be charged when you click on them, but I may earn a small commission from them. This helps maintain this website.

For nearby pubs click here

You might also be interested in this post for dog friendly cafes.

We hope you enjoy your dog walk from Cromford Mill. You might also be interested in the Black Rock walks

A brief history of Eyam

During the Plague, the village of Eyam suffered dreadfully, as did many of the Peak District villages. However, the locals attempted to stop the disease being spread further, by putting themselves in quarantine. Apparently the plague virus had been brought into the village by a local tailor on some infected cloth which he had bought whilst in London. The tailor himself died quickly, and 250 other villagers also died, including the rectors wife (the rector himself had instigated the quarantine).  Eyam – is often referred to as the Plague village, and there are some nice walks and some lovely dog friendly cafes to visit afterwards.

Our walk (in brief)

1. I parked in Eyam Hall car par. This is a National Trust car park, so you’ll need to be a member to park here. Alternative parking is available, just follow the signs in the village.

2. I turned left and walked up main street, until I reached what was once a public house. I then turned left into Tideswell Lane and followed this up the hill and then turned left onto Windmill Lane.

Note: If you have an OS map, there’s a loop which takes you around Dunlow Farm. It eventually loops back into Tideswell Lane. There are a lot of sheep and lambs in these fields and dogs must be kept on leads.

3. If you’re short of time, you can avoid taking the loop around Dunlow Farm. Instead you can turn left down Dunlow Lane, which brings you to the rear of Eyam Hall car park.

Map of the village

Here’s a google map to help you gain your bearings around the village. You may find you need to expand the map to see all the details and road names.

Dog Friendly cafes in Eyam

Here are a couple of dog friendly cafes that you can try:

Cafe Village Green, located in The Square in Eyam.

Eyam Tea Rooms, just across the road from The Cafe Village Green..

Dog Friendly pubs in Eyam

The Miners Arms on Water Lane is very dog friendly.

View from the Limestone Way

Full Walk Distance: 3 miles approximately

Time taken: 1 hour 15 mins possibly longer if your sauntering.

Start point: Winster car park

Sat Nav: For Miners Standard – a pub close to the car park DE4 2DR

Location: The car park can be found just off the B5056.

This walk entails some road walking through Winster at the start and end of the walk, but also includes fields and paths. There is a quite a reasonable section of walled track along the Limestone Way, where you can let your dog off the lead as long as they are well behaved and not likely to jump into fields alongside the track and upset the livestock.

Free car parking – although it is a very small car park and can get very busy with walkers.

If you want to avoid the first section of the walk, which involves a fairly steep downhill stroll to the pick up a footpath towards Bonsall, (which will also avoid a field of sheep and the first section of the Limestone way), you can start from the car park and head up the road towards the pub (The Miners Standard – which is dog friendly) and locate the Limestone Way, which is just off the road signposted to Newhaven.  Start your walk from no 7.

Walk in full

1. From the car park, walk down East Bank, heading down a steep hill through a residential area.

2. Partway down the hill on the right hand side, you will see a foot path signed to Bonsall, which leads between two cottages.

3. Take this footpath and then pass through the stile and into the field, bearing right up towards the trees. Be aware that there may  be cattle and sheep in the next couple of fields.

4. After the stile in the trees, bear left following the well trodden path.

5. Keep passing through stiles, aiming for a lone stile in the middle of a field. Heading underneath some power cables. You then need to bear right in the field and head up towards some gateposts which will lead you on to the Limestone Way.

6. Once on the Limestone Way, follow the path until you meet the road. You are looking for the road signposted Elton and Newhaven.

7. Walk up this road for just a few metres and then turn right onto the Limestone Way. Walk down this footpath for approximately 1/2 mile.

8. Eventually you will reach a cross road in the tracks (don’t carry on along the Limestone Way) instead on your right hand side you will notice a stile which enters the corner of a field.

9. Go through this stile and head towards a delapidated barn in the middle of the field. You will pass to the right of the barn. In summer the barn may be obscured by trees and bushes.

10. You’ll pass through another stile and then cross the road. Be warned the road can be quite busy and the stile that you need to head towards has some rather steep steps down into the field beyond. It was a bit tricky to negotiate with more than one dog!

11. Walk to the right of the field and then pass through another stile in the wall.  Follow the path towards the trees, where you will then walk through open parkland towards the church, where there is a stile in the wall.

12. Walk through the church yard and then when you reach the road, turn right and walk up West Bank, back to the car park.

Walk from the alternate start point

From the car park, walk up the road towards the Miners Standard pub and locate the road signposted Elton & Newhaven. Then follow from step 7 of the full walk.

Here’s a walk if you find yourself in or around Buxton. On a clear day you will see spectacular panoramic views of Buxton and the surrounding area (if you walk up the steps and view from the top of Solomon’s temple).  That said, if you don’t fancy climbing the steps within the temple, then you get a pretty good view from the field at the foot of the temple.

Time: Allow between 40 mins and 1 hour (depending on how much exploring you want to do)

Distance: 1 – 1.5 miles (again, depending on whether you walk directly to the temple, or decide to meander around the fields).

The Walk:

1. Park in the public car park for Poole’s Cavern (Postcode SK17 9DH). There is a small charge.
2. Take the steps from the car park and walk into the woods. At the top of the steps you will turn left and follow the signs to Solomon’s Temple.
3. When you get to the top of the stoned path, you will pass through a squeezer stile and then follow the path through the field towards the temple. The temple will be diagonally left across the field.
4. You can climb the temple, to get an amazing 360 degrees view of Buxton and the surrounding area.
5. Once you have reached the temple and explored it,  retrace your steps and back down the main path to the car park.

Dog Friendly snacks at Poole’s Cavern Cafe – very welcoming to dogs and have dog biscuits at the counter.

Nearby pub: The Duke at Burbage, SK17 6UR. Very dog friendly and good food.

This is a lovely area to walk in, even though it is slightly outside of the Peak District proper.

We often call in here if we are visiting Chesterfield for some shopping and don’t want to leave the dogs behind for any length of time.

Linacre reservoir is owned by Severn Trent and has several pay and display car parks, which is where this particular walk starts. It costs £1 for two hours, which is not bad value at all. If you are lucky, you might even be able to buy an ice cream, if Frederick’s van is parked here.

There are several dog friendly pubs nearby:

The Peacock – at Cutthorpe

The Three Merry Lads – at Cutthorpe (they do a really nice Sunday Carvery and are very dog friendly)!

The Fox and Goose (Pudding Pie Hill S42 7JJ) – we’ve only just found out about this one! They have a lovely log fire for when it gets a bit colder….

The Walk

1. From the car park, walk through the gap and down the steps. Turn right at the bottom of the steps and walk towards the reservoir.

2. Turn left and follow the well marked path alongside the reservoir. If you keep the water to your right and the grassland to your left, continue along the dam to the end of the path. Half way along, you will see spectacular views of the lower reservoir on your left and the middle reservoir on your right.

3. At the end of the path, bear left and walk along the path through the woodland.

4. At one point the path splits and there is a lower and an upper path. We took the upper path.

5. At the end of the path, turn left and walk along the path at the bottom of the lower reservoir.

6. This will take you to the bottom of some steps, or you can take the path to the right and avoid the steep steps. Assuming you have taken the path, turn left onto the path that you eventually meet and walk back up the hill, past the toilets. You will notice a gate on your left, which you can walk through and meet up with the path where the steps led down to from the car park. Retrace your steps back up to the car park.