cressbrook peak district information logo - accommodation walking cycling

Peak District Towns and Villages: Birchover

An index to Peak District towns and villages including Birchover, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Buxton, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Leek, Matlock, Macclesfield and Wirksworth in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, England, UK.
Slideshow

Birchover

Local Services:

B & B

Self Catering

Food and Drink

Local Geography:
Area Map

Nearby Villages

Local Attractions

Birchover is a larger village than it looks, with rows of cottages clustered along a road which heads straight up the hillside to Stanton Moor. It is a good centre for exploring the surrounding moor and the area across the valley.

At the bottom of the village is the Druid Inn and there is a church hidden in a hollow below it. The church has some unusual paintings which seem more appropriate to the namesakes of the inn than a church. Behind the Druid Inn is Rowtor Rocks, a small gritstone tor with a fine view similar to the better-known Robin Hood's Stride just across the valley. It contains several finely balanced rocking stones which can be moved by the application of a shoulder. One of these could once be moved easily by hand, but was shifted from its position as a prank by fourteen young men on Whit Sunday 1799 and although it was replaced it is not now so finely balanced. The steps and seats which are carved out of the rock here were the work of the Reverend Thomas Eyre, the builder of the village church.

At the top of the village there is an immense stone-cutting works and behind this are some huge quarries, where high-quality gritstone is extracted for building purposes.

Nearby Places of Interest

Caudwell's Mill, RowsleyCaudwell's Mill, Rowsley, Derbyshire, is a working 19th century flour mill which still mills and sells flour. It is open for guided tours and there is also a mill shop and tea room.
Haddon HallHaddon Hall, a mediaeval manor house and home of the Dukes of Rutland, the Manners family, in the Peak District alongside the River Wye near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
Heights of AbrahamHeights of Abraham are a tourist centre with two show caves - Rutland Cavern and Great Masson Mine - plus a cable car and other attractions, above Matlock Bath, Derbyshire.
High Peak TrailThe High Peak Trail takes the line of the former Cromford and High Peak Railway betwen Parsley Hey and Cromford, in the Derbyshire Peak District.
Peak RailPeak Rail have re-opened a section of the former Midland railway which ran between Matlock and Buxton. They are based at Rowsley South station and run services from there to Matlock.
Robin Hood's StrideRobin Hood's Stride is a spectacular tor of gritstone rocks perched on a ridge between Harthill Moor and the Alport-Winster road in the Derbyshire Peak District.
Stanton MoorStanton Moor, and the Nine Ladies stone circle, Derbyshire - a scenic area with many bronze age relics and burial mounds overlooking Stanton in Peak and the Wye and Derwent valleys.
Youlgrave ChurchYoulgrave or Youlgreave Church, Derbyshire, is one of the finest churches in the Peak District. The tombs of Thomas Cockayne, Sir John Rossington and Roger Rooe are especially fine.
All material © Cressbrook Multimedia 1997-2008