TISSINGTON TRAIL
PLAN YOUR VISIT TO TISSINGTON TRAIL
INFORMATION
Location: Tissington Trail is located off A515 from Ashbourne (3.5 miles) to Buxton, signed ‘Tissington’. Go through the village past the pond and turn right for the Trail Car Park. (The trail has several other access points.)
Visit: Tissington is one of the prettiest and most unspoilt villages in Derbyshire and throughout the country.
Refreshments: Herbert’s Fine English Tearooms is in Tissington Village. Several other refreshment outlets serve food close to the trail.
Tissington: The village is approached through an avenue of 200-year-old lime trees, which creates an air of expectancy. Surprisingly, this fine approach does not lead directly to Tissington Hall but to the village itself. Neat, well-tended gardens and limestone cottages behind wide grass verges backed by mature trees give a feeling of peace and tranquillity. No planner designed it; the beauty of the village is the result of evolution.
TISSINGTON TRAIL
The Tissington Trail runs 13 miles from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay. At this point, it joins the High Peak Trail, which runs from High Peak Junction to Dowlow near Buxton. Surrounded by beautiful countryside, the traffic-free trail is ideal for horse riders, cyclists, naturalists, and walkers. Along the flat sections, it is suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
The trail was originally the Buxton to Ashbourne railway line trackbed, built by the LNWR and opened in 1899. In its heyday, it carried express trains from Manchester to London. After World War II, a daily train delivered milk from Peak District farms to Finsbury Park, London.
Following the line’s closure in the 1960s, it was decided to remove the trackbed and turn it into a trail to benefit walkers, cyclists and horse riders. This experimental scheme was one of the first of its type in the country. It has been a great success since opening to the public in June 1971. Many people are attracted at weekends throughout the year and every day during peak holiday periods.
You can walk, cycle or ride a horse every day of the year on this excellent traffic-free trail, and it will not cost you a penny. You can admire the many stunning views during all seasons of the year. Wildflowers are abundant in the spring and summer, and wildlife is plentiful at any time.
At Parsley Hay, you can either turn around and go back down the trail or follow the High Peak Trail as far as Dowlow. The High Peak Trail originally carried the Cromford and High Peak Railway and was considered an engineering masterpiece. It has attracted railway enthusiasts not only from this country but all over the world. It linked High Peak Junction at two hundred and seventy-seven feet above sea level with Whaley Bridge at five hundred and seventeen feet. In the middle, it rose to over a thousand feet at Ladmanlow. It stretched for thirty-three miles in length. The line was fully opened in 1831 when it transported minerals, corn, coal and other commodities from one canal to the other.
