Peak District National Park - Mam Tor and The Great Ridge

Anyone who expects a lot of peaks - as the name suggests - will be deceived. The landscape consists mainly of grassland with rounded hills, small valleys and steep slopes of limestone and coarse-grained sandstone. Simply put: a rolling green landscape with a rock here and there.

We venture on a walk that starts in the hamlet of Hope and takes us via Castleton to Cave Dale.

During a walk through this valley we actually walk on the ceiling of the Peak Cavern, a gigantic cave. Cave Dale is the highlight of the walk. The landscape is fresh green and the limestone peaks protrude dangerously from the ground.

Another -literally- highlight is Mam Tor. This hill of 517 meters towers high above the landscape. The hill has shown its changeable side in the past. She slowly crumbles. This creates new, smaller hills at the foot. Because of this, Mam Tor is also called Mother Hill, or Shivering Mountain.

An appropriate name today, because the cold cutting wind makes us tremble. Whatever you want to call this hill, the view at the top offers a beautiful panorama of the rolling landscape around.

The rest of the walk can also be compared to an average Flemish walk. Many grasslands, many meadows, here and there a deciduous forest. All well and good, but we don't drive 650 kilometers from home for this.

What is also special here are the countless sheep that we encounter.