Padley Gorge

About this place

A rainforest in the middle of England, fifteen minutes by train from Sheffield. That is not a stretch: the gnarled oaks and birches of Padley Gorge are so thickly furred with moss and lichen that ecologists count them among the furthest-inland fragments of temperate rainforest in Britain, protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1972. Burbage Brook tumbles down the narrow valley over dark gritstone boulders, forming waterfall after small waterfall, none higher than a metre or two but so many of them that the sound follows you from the first step to the last. There is no gate and no ticket, and the gorge path is open at any hour. The simplest start is Grindleford railway station: a wooden stile off the station yard drops you straight into the woods, and you follow the brook uphill for about two and a half kilometres, a mile and a half, until the trees open onto a grassy clearing near the A6187 and the Fox House inn, then walk back the same way. The path is rocky, rooty and slick after rain, which makes it perfect for children who walk on their own legs and love a scramble, and hopeless for pushchairs or wheelchairs. For an easier version, start from the National Trust car park at Woodcroft by Fox House and follow the signed Padley Gorge and Burbage Brook circuit, 2.3 miles around the meadow, dropping into the gorge from the top. Grindleford Station Cafe is a genuine local institution, family-run in the original station building since 1973 and known for its chip butties and full English breakfasts; at the far end of the walk the Longshaw cafe and toilets open 09:30 to 17:00. For Gulf visitors touring by hire car: the gorge sits on the eastern edge of the Peak District, about 25 minutes from Bakewell and half an hour from Sheffield, with Hathersage village three kilometres to the north-west. Parking is the one weak point. The yard at Grindleford station is reserved for cafe customers and the approach lane holds only a handful of cars, so the dependable option is one of the National Trust car parks above the gorge: Woodcroft, the main one by Fox House, with the much smaller Haywood and Wooden Pole. All open dawn to dusk and charge non-members 6 pounds for up to four hours and 8 pounds for longer, free for members. On sunny July and August weekends they fill before eleven and the banks fill with families paddling, so arriving before ten or after four transforms the experience. Its rare advantage is that the train is a real option: the Hope Valley line between Sheffield and Manchester stops at Grindleford roughly hourly. When to come? Summer for cold-water paddling in deep shade, but October is the month that truly earns the trip, when the oak and birch canopy turns gold and copper above the black rocks. In winter the gorge stays open, yet daylight ends before four and the path becomes dark and treacherous, so budget accordingly. Do not expect a grand monument either: this is a quiet two-hour walk rather than a postcard landmark, and anyone with a single day in the Peak District might reasonably put Chatsworth or Castleton first.