Peak Experience

Walk back in time through the remote limestone dale of Roystone Grange.  A 10 km easy-going trail takes you past a Neolithic tomb, Romano-British farm, medieval monastic grange, and later industrial archaeology.  There are historic villages nearby.  You can see a well-preserved deserted medieval village and open fields at Ballidon. Bradbourne church has a Norman tower, Viking carved stone cross and dramatic Italian murals, dating from the 1600s.

 

A picture of Royston Grange

Roystone Grange is a short walk from the High Peak trail, approximately 4 km northwest of the village of Brassington.  Minninglow car park is a good place to begin.  You can get the Roystone Grange Trail as a leaflet from Bakewell visitor centre or as a download at the bottom of this page.

 

The secluded valley, wedged between limestone crags, is brimming with over 2,000 years of archaeological remains.  You can find features from different time periods all located next to a circular footpath.

 

Following the trail along the Cromford and High Peak railway line from Minninglow car park, the first site to visit is an early 20th century crane rusting away in a stone quarry.  There are well-preserved Victorian lime and brick kilns.

 

Next is an explosives hut located in fields near a Bronze Age burial mound.  Lumps and bumps betray the site of a farm from the 1500s and the medieval monastic farm it replaced.  What looks like a chapel next to the monastic farm is actually a Victorian compressed-air pumping house which powered drills used in line-side quarries.

 

A picture of the Royston Dig A picture of the large mound

 

Further down the track you’ll find traces of Romano-British houses and field walls.  You can identify the Roman walls by the distinctive large boulders the builders used for foundations.

 

This historic valley is overlooked by an even older monument.  Some of the first farmers in Britain built a large mound on Minninglow hill about 5,000 years ago.  They buried their dead in stone tombs deep under the mound.

 

Bradbourne church was originally built over 1,000 years ago. Fragments of Saxon stonework and a Norman tower survive medieval rebuilding.  There is an Italian mural of the Adoration of the Shepherds inside (1600s AD). A Saxon or Anglo-Viking carved stone cross shaft stands in the churchyard.  There is also an Elizabethan hall in the village.

 

The little hamlet of Ballidon was much larger in medieval times.  You can still see the ruins of the deserted village and take time to wonder what life was like for the people who lived in the houses.  The impressive terraces and ridges of its extensive open field survive in the surrounding fields.

 

Public transport information for all locations can be found by calling Traveline on 0871 200 2233.

To plan your journey to Bradbourne, which has direct bus services from Ashbourne and Matlock, visit Traveline.