Walks in The Ancient Peak District

Robert Harris

The third in this successful series, Walks in the Ancient Peak District is a collection of walks visiting the prehistoric monuments and sites of the Peak District, including the White Peak, Dark Peak, Western and Eastern Moors. Explore rock shelters and caves of the old stone age, stone circles and burial chambers of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and the great hill forts of the Iron Age, whilst appreciating the beautiful scenery and wildlife of the Peak District. Not only a book of walks but also a refreshing insight into life during these early times, including the thinking behind the monuments, rituals and strange behaviour of our ancestors.

The Peak District boasts not only the most breathtaking scenery but also the most fascinating prehistoric sites and monuments left by our ancestors over thousands of years. If you can imagine our Stone Age forefathers following herds of bison and reindeer as they migrated north during the Ice Age, then a walk in the Peak District following Robert Harris’s routes offers a clearer understanding of a very different way of life experienced by these first settlers. Stone circles, standing stones and burial mounds are scattered across the spectacular landscape, with ancient settlements and forts perched high on isolated hills. There are also secret tombs, caves hidden away within deep valleys, where strange and unexplained rituals took place. The author has divided the area into four sections - the familiar limestone plateau and deep-cut dales of the White Peak, and the three areas if high gritstone moorland surrounding it (the Dark Peak, Eastern Moorlands and Western Moorlands). The walks are all circular, ranging in length from 4 to 10 miles, and start and finish in a town or village that is easy to locate and convenient to reach by car. They vary in difficulty from quiet lanes and well-marked footpaths to more demanding climbs up onto the bleak heaths and edges of the higher moors. They are all worthwhile walks in themselves as they pass through some of the finest scenery England has to offer, but the fascinating historical detail Robert Harris has unearthed gives each walk an added interesting focus. This is Robert Harris’s third book in the series to be published by Sigma Leisure following the success of Walks in Ancient Lakeland and Walks in Ancient Wales.