Express line to the Peaks

The Cromford and High Peak and Ashbourne to Buxton railway lines closed in the mid-'60s but, on the Bank Holiday of my visit, looked like they had never been busier – with cyclists, of course.

All ages of cyclist and types of bike were represented – from toddlers in trailers to children on tandem extensions, adults on tandems, grandparents on mountain bikes and the occasional tourer. I even passed one bike fitted with a wheelchair on the front. There could hardly have been a more heartening advert for the National Cycle Network and leisure cycling in the 21st century. If you enjoy your cycling alone, though, make sure you come off-peak and, whenever you visit, make sure your bike has a bell.

You can join the two trails at many different points but choosing one of the former stations is the best bet if you need somewhere to park. I picked up the Tissington Trail at Thorpe. To start with it was hard work since I was carrying a pair of panniers and towing my seven-year-old son, Bertie, on a tag-along bike. What I didn't realised was that I was also travelling slightly uphill. Between Alsop and Hartington the scales tipped and, with the gradient in our favour, I didn't feel quite so out of condition.

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Hartington was once one of the busiest stations on the Ashbourne to Buxton line used by walkers as well as by the limestone quarrying industry. It had two platforms (with a ladies waiting room on each), a booking hall and waiting area. Today, it's a popular picnic spot, our bench bearing the inscription: "Sit back on this bench and dream of noise and wheels and coal and steam." A short walk from the station is Hartington Meadows where you might hear skylarks singing while they hang in the air or the distinctive cronk-cronk call of ravens that breed in the quarries in the spring.

Some railway paths are enclosed and can get a little monotonous after the initial novelty but not the Tissington Trail. After a showery summer we saw England's green and pleasant land at its most verdant. Cows, sheep, fluffy clouds, rolling hills and dry stone walls were all around. At the northern end of the Trail we passed along two deep, dramatic rock-sided cuttings which were framed in a purple v-shape by willow herb waving gently in the breeze like peacock feathers.

Reached after 10 miles and at the first corner of our route, Parsley Hay was a natural spot for lunch – for us and most other cyclists, too. I hadn't seen such a great concentration of bikes since my last visit to a bike shop.

Parsley Hay was initially a rural outpost on the Cromford and High Peak Railway. The railway was conceived as part of the canal network and as a means of connecting Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to the industrial North-West via the difficult high ground of the Peak District. Opened in 1830, it was designed like a canal with level sections of track (originally worked by horses) between five steep inclines. It would sometimes take 16 hours to complete 33 miles of the railway – which made our earlier progress seem positively speedy. In 1889, the Buxton to Ashbourne line opened making Parsley Hay a busy junction.

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The High Peak Trail – which follows the route of the old Cromford railway and now forms part of the Pennine Bridleway – wasn't quite as busy as the Tissington Trail but we still had to take care as we wobbled our way on the narrow track past the other cyclists. It also includes several bridal gates and you need to cross a main road.

There are few obvious station buildings on the trail but two towering dam-like embankments, walled on either side, gave a strong hint of its past. Our next stop, Longcliffe, was a former goods yard and and watering place. Little water was available in the area because of its limestone geology, so spring water from Cromford was brought here in tenders. These were shunted up on to the waiting ramps to provide water for steam locomotives and other uses.

The highlight of the High Peak Trail for us was the 113-yard long Hopton Tunnel. It was so pitch black that I couldn't even see my wheels turning and felt like that little boy cycling through the night sky in the ET film. Also looking a little sci-fi was a mysterious structure next to abseilers at Harboro' Rocks. Four towers like an Aztec temple connected by stone steps stand forbiddingly in a field looking out across the trail. A quick Google suggests they are part of old quarry workings.

We reached the end of the trail at Middleton Top. At least, it's the end if you're on a bike, as a sign indicates that the incline is too steep for cycles and we were bound for an overnight stop in nearby Wirksworth anyway.

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The following day it was almost a novelty to cycle along roads again. A lane led us up a steep hill from the town's marketplace and then down to the peaceful Carsington Water. The Bank Holiday weekend now having passed, we were mostly on our own as we pedalled around the numerous little ups and downs of the reservoir's eight-mile perimeter track which encompasses a mile-long dam wall. Beside it were two more strange structures: what looks like a giant plughole with a rock in the middle of it is a performance area and a small building in the water next to the dam is a valve tower which controls flows into and out of the reservoir.

We had a look around the visitors centre and a trip to the playground, then walked around Stones Island. This land was the site of a Bronze Age settlement and was saved when the valley was flooded in the '80s to create the reservoir. Up to four metres tall and weighing up to 7.8 tonnes, stones were sited on the island to continue Derbyshire's long-standing tradition of hill top monuments.

A signed Sustrans route conveniently links Carsington Water via Bradbourne and a big hill back to Tissington. The church and the Jacobean Tissington Hall stand imposingly on banks either side of the long green and the village also has several chocolate box cottages, no fewer than six wells, a chapel, a duck pond and butcher, an even greater rarity. It seemed to be the ideal place to celebrate the completion of our ride – which we did in style at the tea room on the green, the terminus at the end of our line.

PEDALLING THE PEAK DISTRICT

Distance: 35 miles.

Map: www.peakdistrict.gov.uk /hptisstrails.pdf (for guide to the two cycle trails) and www.bit.ly/ peakdistrictride for complete route as described.

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Bike hire: Parsley Hay station. Tel 01298 84493. Middleton Top visitor centre. Tel 01629 823204. Ashbourne. Tel 01335 343156.

Accommodation: The Old Lock-up, Wirksworth. Tel 01629 826272. Former police station with a room also in Gothic chapel in graveyard next door.

Overfield Farm, Tissington, Tel 01335 390285. Beautifully situated at the top of the green.

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