Self-Catering Holiday Cottages in the Peak District National Park, England, UK

Around Cotterill Farm

We have a small wood and just 12 acres of pasture land. On two of the fields our two ponies and a few sheep graze. Our nine hens also have the run of a three acre field! A third field is for hay, and the fourth is a wild flower meadow.

These four fields are almost totally surrounded by Biggin Dale which is a nature reserve managed by English Nature. A footpath runs through the reserve and after just over a mile it reaches the famous River Dove at Wolfscote Dale. The banner picture at the top of this and all the other pages of this web site features a picture taken from the easily accessable access land above Biggin Dale  and slightly to the right of the middle of the picutre will be seen the 'buttresses' above Wolfscote Dale at the point of the River Dove where Biggin Dale joins.

You can turn left down Wolfscote Dale, taking an excellent riverside path beside the River Dove past towering cliffs on either side; the path eventually leads you to the most famous dale of the Peak, Dovedale. 

Here you will discover sheer pinnacles of rock, lions heads, caves and more. Alternatively you can turn right, walking most of the length of Wofscote Dale before coming to the pastures and further towering cliffs of Beresford Dale, eventually reaching after an hour's walking the honeypot village of Hartington, where teas, snacks and drinks can be enjoyed, before a 30 minute walk back over a really impresssive bridleway back to Cotterill farm. 

The walk downstream to Dovedale and upstream through Wolfscote and Beresford dale to Hartington are equally attractive and popular. Or with the advent of 'Open Access' you can now walk all these dales from up above, offering great scenic views, and away from 'the strollers' down below. (Routes for this are given to our guests). Incidentally Bereford Dale is famous for its fishing temple where Isaac Walton and Charles Cotton whiled away their time and wrote the famous 17th century fishing 'bible' - the Complete Angler

The Dales offer interest and lovely scenery in all seasons and are just as attractive on a crisp, snow-covered winter's day as in summer sunshine. Each season reveals new beauties and features. 

By way of explanation, a Dale is a valley through which rivers flow or in the past have flowed. In the latter case, the rivers have seeped underground through the limestone base and run underneath the ground, bubbling up during wet winters. 

The Manifold Valley is a great example of a river that half way along its length, suddenly vanishes underground, re-appearing some four miles later at Ilam Hall. The point at which it vanishes varies as the flow of water decreases during the summer months.