The Little Mill Inn

The cities of Manchester and Stockport are 50 and 30 minutes’ drive away from this park respectively, but before you tour Old Trafford football stadium and the Science and History Museum in the former or check out the heather-covered Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden in the latter, the Peak District’s topnotch country manors and pretty settlements await... Venture into the countryside right from the park on off-road wanders towards Hayfield (an hour on foot or 20 minutes in the car), which has access to the Kinder Scout moorland plateau – the highest point in the Peak District, Derbyshire and the East Midlands, making it a triple whammy of a peak for hikers to tackle – and the 268-mile Pennine Way trail. Or start off in a spa town like Buxton (35 minutes) for underground explores at Poole's Cavern & Buxton Country Park then make tracks to the Pavilion Gardens to spy the Victorian miniature railway. For historical manors from a different era, the early 17th-century Chatsworth House and medieval Haddon Hall are both around 50 minutes’ drive from the park (and are right by the town of Bakewell – yep, home to those tasty cakes…).