Peak Experience

Water formed the Peak District itself.  About 350 million years ago Britain lay on the Equator and the area that would one day become the Peak District was a tropical sea.  Dovedale and Manifold was a deep sea while further north, closer to Buxton and Castleton, there was a shallow lagoon fringed with coral reefs and palm trees.  Particles of lime-mud along with dead coral and shellfish built up on the sea bed so creating the White Peak limestone.  The strange outcrops along Winnat’s Pass are the remains of some coral reefs.

 

Underwater picture