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This lovely little book explores the ten best short circular walks along the southern part of the Pembrokeshire coast — itself part of the Wales Coast Path. The Pembrokeshire coast alters subtly from north to south. The southern rocks are far younger and the coast tends to be south-facing, too, creating a gentler hinterland. This influenced historical development and culture, for although the Norman advance extended throughout Pembrokeshire, settlement focused on the more fertile southern corner. It became known as ‘Little England’, with English rather than Welsh spoken, a tradition reflected in place names. Before reliable roads, trade and prosperity favoured the coast, and because the railways came late here, Pembrokeshire was largely ignored by the Industrial Revolution. Unspoiled and breathtakingly scenic, the coast is captivating every step of the way. -
This attractive pocket size book will take you on short circular walks to the ten finest rocks and edges in the Peak District. Surprisingly for newcomers, the Peak District is almost devoid of anything resembling a traditional mountain peak (the name instead derives from the Old English paec, merely meaning ‘hill’). In reality, The Peak is a high, sloping plateau, cleft by deep valleys and winding ravines. In compensation, however, there are long runs of startlingly dramatic cliffs — here known as edges — and spectacularly weathered outcrops of rock, often referred to as tors. For rock climbers, they offer some of England’s finest challenges, while for walkers the views from the escarpments’ rims can be unforgettable. -
This lovely pocket size book explores ten of the Peak District's most fascinating historic landscapes — from prehistoric monuments to Industrial Revolution ruins. Stone tools from Thor’s Cave indicate that man arrived in the Peak as the glaciers receded. More obvious are Bronze and Iron Age circles, burials and earthworks, as well as the scars of mineral extraction — begun by the Romans and continuing today. Some Peakland churches claim Saxon foundation, and by the Middle Ages there was an extensive network of tracks and settlements. Water powered the first industrial revolution, bringing roads, canals and railways, and in the fine country mansions, farmsteads, cottages and town houses there is a rich variety of vernacular and classic architecture. -
This lovely, pocket size book offers the ten best short circular walks to upland moors and tors across the Peak District. The uplands of the Peak bear the characteristics of hills rather than mountains: high, undulating plateaux dissected by deep, meandering valleys. Yet there is little uniformity; the seemingly remote moorland of the Kinder plateau is in sharp contrast to the gentler and lower upland heaths found farther south. These landscapes change subtly with the seasons and, for those who care to look, are rich in wildlife. There are birds, hares, and foxes; and in summer, adders and lizards bask in the sun while butterflies dance in the remotest places. -
This attractive pocket size book gives you the ten very best dale and valley walks in the Peak District. The White Peak is known for dramatic limestone gorges: convoluted pathways carved into its heart, where rearing pinnacles, dark caves and thundering rivers struck awe into seventeenth-century travellers. Still captivating today, they harbour rich woodland, wildflower meadows and disappearing and resurgent streams, one of the area’s strangest curiosities. Delightful Dovedale, once the haunt of the renowned anglers Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton, contrasts with Cave Dale, a gaunt, dry passage below Castleton’s Norman stronghold. But the Dark Peak has attractive valleys too, and different again is the Dane Valley, which cuts onto the Cheshire Plain from the gritstone moors.
