|
The Tissington Trail, a Peak District cycling trailThe Tissington Trail, a Derbyshire Peak District cycling trail follows the former railway line between Buxton and Ashbourne. |
| Main Index | Accommodation | Food & Drink | Tourist Attractions | Towns & Villages | Outdoors | Geography & Maps | Features & Photos | Events & Links |
  |
| ||||||||||||||
 
| The London and North-Western railway opened its line between Buxton and Ashbourne in 1899 and closed it in 1966. The line was purchased by the Peak National Park and Derbyshire County Council in 1971 and reopened as the Tissington Trail, for cyclists and walkers. The southern end of the trail starts just out of Ashbourne, on the Mapledon road, and the northern end is at Pomeroy cottages, just south of Sterndale Moor - the rest of the line to Buxton is still in use as a freight line for the quarries. The track north of Parsley Hay was shared with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which branches off eastwards just south of Parsley Hay station - this is now the High Peak Trail. The trail makes for a very pleasant day out and is not too strenuous to cycle along, with mostly very gentle gradients. (You might be entitled to expect this on a former railway line, but it is not true of the nearby High Peak Trail!) Though there is little of immediate interest to see along the Trail itself, it passes very close to Dovedale, Tissington, Hartington and other attractive places, so it is easy to devise an enjoyable tour - provided you can avoid cycling back along the busy A515 road. Tissington Trail Photo Gallery - click on the images to enlarge- Click Here for a slide show
How to get there By Road: the former stations along the way have been converted into car parks - these are at Sparklow (between Monyash and Crowdecote), Parsley Hay, Hartington, Alsop en le Dale, Tissington, Thorpe and on the northern outskirts of Ashbourne. Parsley Hey, Alsop en la Dale, Tissington and Sparklow both lie just off the A515 road between Buxton and Ashbourne, and the former Hartington station lies off the B5054 road which branches off the A515 to Hartington. The Ashbourne end of the trail is about 1km fro the Market Place in Ashbourne and is signposted from there. When is it open? There is a National Park information centre at Tissington and cycle hire is available at Parsley Hay (tel: 01298 84493) and Mappleton (near Ashbourne - tel: 01335 343156), and this is also to be found in many of the nearby villages (eg Thorpe and Tissington). The former signal box at Hartington has been converted into a Visitor Centre and is well worth a look (open weekends and Bank Holidays from Easter to end of October and Sundays only the rest of the year). What does it cost? No charge for the visitor centre. Some of the car parks are pay and display. Prices and opening times are shown as a guideline only and may vary. See this link for more information on prices and opening | ||||||||||||||
| Back | Top | Main Index | Accommodation | Food & Drink | Tourist Attractions | Towns and Villages | Outdoors | Maps | Links |
All material © Cressbrook Multimedia 1997-2008
