The Peak district is a tapestry of landscapes largely 300m above sea, rising to 636m at Kinder Scout. It features a mix of valley pastures, meadows, upland pastures rising to moorland slopes, ridges and then open highland moors. Superb limestone gorges and gritstone escarpments mark the edges of the moors, and there are pockets of peat bogs, and natural woodlands dotted amongst the landscape of the region too.

This is a region central to many millions of people in the British Isles’ connection with nature, with majestic escarpments looking down over rough pastures to historic villages, masses of flowers in the dales and pink heather that blooms in the moors.

Wildlife of the Peak District include the hedgehog, otter, pine marten, water vole, badger, foxes, and the mountain hare. Breeding populations of beautiful birds such as the short-eared owl, golden plover, peregrine, hen harrier and the red grouse are supported by the landscape of the Peaks.

The Peak District is a peopled landscape which is rich in cultural history, with evidence of more than 10,000 years of human habitation in the region. This is evidenced by mesolithic flint artefacts, a Bronze Age stone circle, Iron Age hill forts, and roads constructed by the Romans.

Gorgeous historic villages such as Edale, Buxton, Ashbourne, Bakewell and the “plague village” of Eyam are dotted through the foothills of the peaks, with magnificent centuries old churches, cathedrals and homes. The landscapes of the peaks have also featured famously in literature from the fairytale forest described in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, through to Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which is thought to be based on the stunning Chatsworth House. Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ is based on Hathersage, whilst the Peaks region was the inspiration for a number of William Wordsworth’s poems.

The Peak District National Park is the United Kingdom’s first national park, and home to a famous act of civil disobedience in support of public connection to wild places.

For many years, the upland Moorland estates were regarded as the private estate of landed gentry who prevented public access to the lands and guarded them with gamekeepers. In 1932, the ‘Kinder Trespass’ was a deliberate act of trespass by walkers, to Kinder Scout, the high-point of the Peaks District, to highlight that walkers were denied access by private interests to areas of open natural country. There were violent scuffles at the time with gamekeepers, and a number received gaol terms, but the act of civil disobedience flowed on to trigger the National Parks legislation in 1949 in the UK, the establishment of the magnificent Pennine Way walk, and the establishment of the Peaks District National Park as the UK’s first National Park in 1951.

The Peaks district is situated within an hour’s drive of more than 20 million people, and there is a tension that exists between the enrichment and inspiration that the magnificent Peaks provides to the lives of millions of people, and the pressure that this can put on the conservation of the natural integrity of this landscape.

An increased intensification of burning of moors, and killing of birds of prey to support grouse shooting has put pressures on rare birds of prey and the moorland landscapes.

There is still within parts of the Peaks district, highly contentious large-scale limestone quarrying.

The upland moors have faced intense pressures from pollution, erosion and fire, and now global warming.

Intense efforts are now being made now to work to restore the habitat and wildness of this remarkable landscape.

More Information about the Peaks District:

The Peaks District National Park Authority is responsible for managing the Peak District National Park: https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk

Current Conservation Efforts:

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s purpose is to achieve a vision of a Wilder Derbyshire, by creating nature recovery networks, corridors for wildlife and by running projects for particular species and habitats: https://www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/

The countryside charity for Peak District and South Yorkshire aims to promote the beauty, tranquility and diversity of the countryside in the Peak District: https://www.cprepdsy.org.uk/

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is one of the world’s largest wildlife conservation organisations, and has specific projects in the peaks, including work to restore areas of blanket bogs, flower-rich grassland, heath and woodlands within the Peaks district: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/landscape-scale-conservation/sites/dark-peak/