What's on inDerbyshire

Known as one of the most picturesque counties in the UK, Derbyshire offers the quintessential green pastures and gamboling lambs of the English countryside, intersected by tumble-down stone walls, large and remote farms, grey stone villages, desolate and beautiful moorland and miles and miles of rolling hills. Perhaps unsurprisingly much of the landscape is part of the Peak District National Park but there is also some breathtaking scenery in other areas of the county. In the north the county overlaps with the Pennines and it also includes part of the National Forest.

Derbyshire borders Cheshire to the West, Staffordshire to the South West, Leicestershire to the South East, Nottinghamshire to the East, Yorkshire in the North East and North, and Greater Manchester to the North West.

It has been inhabited for over 200,000 years and there are numerous Paleolithic, Neolithic and Stone Age sites scattered around the county. In addition there are some wonderful Neolithic burial tombs in Five Wells and Minning Low that date back to about 2500 BC. There are a number of Bronze Age sites in the Peak District and plenty of evidence of the later Roman invasion, especially around the warm springs of Buxton. Indeed Buxton, an elegant spa town, is one of Derbyshires historical highlights as are the dramatic town of Matlock Bath, Bolsover Castle, Castleton, Kedleston Hall and the National Trust run properties at Calke Abbey, Hardwick Hall, High Peak Estate and Sudbury Hall.

For outdoor pursuits there is the area around the reservoirs of Ladybower, Derwent and Howden which offers hiking and cycling trails. But for the great outdoors itself nothing beats the Peak District and sites such as Kinder Scout and Mam Tor, as well as hundreds of miles of peatlands, steep sided valleys and rocky crags. Derbyshire truly deserves its title as the backbone of the country.