Peak District Photography, October 2024
A day touring six of the Peak District's best-known spots, timed for peak autumn colour. It started in the Derwent Valley, where mallard ducks worked the shallows near an old stone packhorse bridge and the low water left a ring of golden trees mirrored in the reservoir. A short drive on, Ladybower Reservoir's dam wall makes for a dramatic walk in its own right, past the round valve tower and the famous “plughole” overflow, with autumn colour climbing the wooded hillsides all around.
From there it was into the woods proper. Lud's Church is a moss-choked rock chasm deep in the trees near the Roaches: walls dripping in ferns, narrow enough in places to touch both sides, with shafts of light breaking through far overhead. Padley Gorge paired a tumbling, boulder-strewn stream with some of the most gnarled, moss-wrapped ancient oaks in the Peaks, all lit up gold and amber for the season.
The day closed with two of the Peak District's more dramatic set pieces: Thor's Cave, a vast cave mouth high above the Manifold Valley with sweeping views out over the autumn hillside, and Winnats Pass, a steep-sided limestone gorge with jagged rock towers lining the old road through the hills.
