Peter Dale is a short dry crag-sided valley near

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, in the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

of England. There is a farmland plateau on either side. The northern end of the valley leads into

Hay Dale Hay Dale is a short dry valley near Buxton, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. It is part of a longer valley that runs for approximately north–south from Peak Forest (on the A623 road) to the River Wye at Millers Dale. This va ...

at Dale Head and the foot of the valley leads into

Monk's Dale Monk's Dale is a short steep-sided dry gorge near Buxton, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. The dale is cut into a plateau of farmland and lies to the east of the village of Wormhill. The head of the valley leads into Peter Dale to ...

. Hay Dale and Monk's Dale are both part of the

Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve The Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve is a series of unconnected limestone dales in the Peak District National Park. It is managed by Natural England and has a permanent staff of wardens who carry out conservation works and ensure the dales ...

managed by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

. The

Carboniferous limestone Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 363 and ...

rocks of all these dales were formed 350 million years ago from the shells and sediments of a tropical sea. The landscape was then sculpted by the ice sheets from the last

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

20,000 years ago. The walking along the flat valley floor is easy except for a couple of short rock-strewn sections. The

Limestone Way The Limestone Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in Derbyshire, England. It runs for through the White Peak of the Peak District National Park, from Castleton south to Rocester over the county boundary into Staffordshire. The trail ...

long-distance footpath runs along the length of the gentle valley floor. The

Peak District Boundary Walk The Peak District Boundary Walk is a circular walking trail, starting and finishing at Buxton and broadly following the boundary of the Peak District, Britain's first national park. The route was developed by the Friends of the Peak District (a ...

trail passes the northern end of the valley. The

Pennine Bridleway The Pennine Bridleway is a National Trail in Northern England. It runs roughly parallel with the Pennine Way but provides access for horse riders and cyclists as well as walkers. The trail is around long, extending from Derbyshire to Cumbria. ...

runs across the southern end and then parallel to the dale about 1km to the east (through the hamlet of

Wheston Wheston is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Peak District. Notable features include Wheston Hall and the Wheston Cross. The cross, which survives intact, is more than high. It probably dates from the 14th century and marked the way f ...

). Where the Limestone Way crosses the A623 road (about 1 km north of Hay Dale), the route of the old

Batham Gate Batham Gate is the medieval name for a Roman road in Derbyshire, England, which ran south-west from Templebrough on the River Don, South Yorkshire, River Don in South Yorkshire to Brough-on-Noe (Latin ''Navio Roman Fort, Navio'') and the spa tow ...

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

runs east–west. Peter Dale's limestone cliffs are well-suited to rock climbing, with 25 graded routes on Main Crag.{{Cite web, url=http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=997, title=Peter Dale, website=www.ukclimbing.com, language=en, access-date=2020-04-07 Access into Peter Dale from the south can be made from the hamlet of Wormhill along the Pennine Bridleway. From the north there is a footpath from the village of Peak Forest (on the A623 road) through Dam Dale and Hay Dale.

References

Valleys of the Peak District Valleys of Derbyshire Peak District Derbyshire Dales