A Taste of the Peak District

Accommodation, activities and attractions of the Peak District of the UK

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Arranged round the village green, Hartington is a traditional Derbyshire market town. One of the cold war nuclear fall out bunkers of the cold war can be found in a field nearby. A great place for the visitor to stay.

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Hartington - a Peak District village with oodles of character, nestling in the rolling Derbyshire countryside. Home to the Hartington Stilton cheese factory and one of Derbyshire's finest ales.

Hartington village lies close to the River Dove and is delightfully built around the market place with its duck pond. It is an excellent centre for walking and mountain biking as an extensive network of paths and bridleways radiate from it. Hartington also offers easy access to Beresford Dale which can be followed southwards, through Wolfscote Dale and Milldale to reach the top end of Dovedale.

Although the days of the market have long since passed, Hartington retains a variety of industry. Here you will find the cheese factory (one of the few in the country that is licensed to produce Stilton cheese) with its customary visitor centre and shop, two pubs, a pottery, tea rooms and a microbrewery. One of the pubs is also a hotel, named after Isaac Walton’s friend (and collaborator on writing the ‘Compleat Angler’ in the 1650s) Charles Cotton.

Hartington received its charter as a market town around 800 years ago, but it is a long time since markets were held here regularly. The town hall dates from the 1830s and the cottages fringing the market place date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Charles Cotton lived in Beresford Hall and was generally too busy fishing and writing than earning money so he had to sell the hall. The hall is now just a ruin but his Fishing Temple still exists, on private land on the right bank of the river Dove.

In 1645, Bonnie Prince Charlie made his ill-fated march on London. It is said that he stayed in Hartington Hall, now the Youth Hostel, although you will find claims from many Derbyshire villages that he stayed there!

Hartington is actually one of the largest parishes in the country - the parish church is situated in a prominent hilltop position and dates from the 13th century.

Click here for B&B, self catering and hotel accommodation in or near to Hartington