Things to do in Cheshire

Arbor Low in the limestone country of the Derbyshire Peak District is the most significant Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial monument in the English Midlands, a henge monument of approximately 2500 BC consisting of a circular bank and ditch enclosing a central plateau on which approximately fifty limestone slabs lie recumbent, the stones having fallen or been deliberately laid flat at some point in their history in a departure from the upright arrangement typical of most British stone circles. The site commands extensive views over the limestone plateau and its elevated position above the valley below makes its role as a ceremonial gathering place immediately comprehensible. The monument consists of a great circular bank reaching approximately two metres in height with a ditch inside it and two opposing entrances, enclosing an area of approximately fifty metres diameter. The recumbent stones inside the enclosure were originally upright and the reasons for their current position remain unclear, though it seems likely that many were toppled deliberately rather than simply falling under their own weight. The interpretation of Arbor Low must acknowledge this uncertainty while appreciating the monument's scale and its position in the landscape. The nearby bowl barrow of Gib Hill, visible from Arbor Low and connected to it by a linear earthwork, is one of the largest prehistoric barrows in the Peak District and was built adjacent to the henge in a relationship that suggests the two monuments were conceived as parts of a single ceremonial complex. The combination of Arbor Low and Gib Hill makes this one of the most significant prehistoric landscape settings in the English Midlands.

Hartington is one of the most attractive and most welcoming villages in the Peak District, a limestone village in the upper Dove Valley of Derbyshire whose combination of the large village pond, the ancient market place, the renowned Hartington creamery producing Stilton cheese and the excellent access it provides to the walking of the Dove Valley and the surrounding limestone country make it one of the most popular centres for exploring the White Peak. The combination of the village charm and the walking available on the surrounding limestone plateau creates a destination that satisfies both those seeking a village experience and those primarily motivated by the Dales landscape. The Hartington creamery, one of only six dairies licensed to produce Stilton cheese, has been producing the king of English cheeses in this village for over a century, and the direct sale of the cheese from the village shop provides one of the most satisfying local food purchases available at any Peak District destination. The limestone caves below the village, once used as maturing rooms for the cheese, provide an additional curiosity. The Dove Valley walking from Hartington provides access to the finest sections of Dovedale and the upper Manifold Valley, the two great limestone gorges of the White Peak, and the limestone plateau walking above the village on the high ground between the two valleys provides some of the finest upland limestone scenery in the national park.

Lyme Park is one of the grandest historic estates in the north of England, an Italianate mansion set within 1,400 acres of moorland, parkland, formal gardens and ancient deer park on the edge of the Peak District in Cheshire. The estate has been associated with the Legh family for nearly 600 years, and the house they developed over centuries into the palatial building visible today is an exceptional example of the evolving ambitions of an English aristocratic family. The house's current exterior appearance owes most to a Baroque remodelling carried out by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni between 1725 and 1735, which transformed an earlier Elizabethan building into a building of considerable grandeur with classical colonnades, formal courtyards and a theatrical south front that faces the lake and deer park. The interior preserves rooms from several periods, including Elizabethan panelling, Restoration carving and the formal reception rooms developed for eighteenth-century entertaining. The Clock Tower courtyard retains the feel of the earlier Tudor building beneath the later classical veneer. The gardens were developed over many centuries and include a formal Dutch garden, an English garden, a reflecting pool and the Victorian parterre. Humphry Repton, one of the most influential landscape designers in English history, was consulted about the wider park landscape and his recommendations helped shape the relationship between the house and the moorland setting that gives Lyme Park its distinctive character. The Cheshire Gate, a dramatic Victorian folly, provides one of the most striking viewpoints over the surrounding landscape. Lyme Park achieved a new wave of popular recognition when it was used as the filming location for Pemberley in the 1995 BBC television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The shot of Colin Firth emerging from the lake in his wet shirt is one of the most discussed moments in British television history, and the park still attracts many visitors who come specifically to see the location. The red deer herd that roams the moorland and parkland is one of the features that most surprises first-time visitors. Seeing a large herd of deer moving across the open moorland above the house, with the Cheshire Plain stretching to the horizon below, is a genuinely memorable experience. Entry to the park is free; a charge applies for the house and gardens.

The Peak District was designated England's first national park in 1951 and remains one of the most visited in the world, a landscape of extraordinary variety covering approximately 1,438 square kilometres of the southern Pennines that combines the gritstone moorlands and edges of the Dark Peak to the north with the limestone dales and white rock of the White Peak to the south in a contrast of landscape characters that provides an almost unlimited range of walking, cycling and outdoor recreation within easy reach of several large English cities. The Dark Peak, named for the dark gritstone that underlies the high moorland, is a landscape of severe and dramatic character. The great moorland plateaux of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Black Hill, reaching over 600 metres and covered in blanket peat and cotton grass, provide the most challenging and most atmospheric walking in the park, their vast, trackless expanses a contrast to the more developed landscapes of the surrounding towns. The gritstone edges, including Stanage, Froggatt and Curbar, are among the finest rock climbing venues in Britain and provide excellent ridge walking with views over the moorland to the east and the Derwent valley to the west. The White Peak to the south and centre of the park is a landscape of a quite different character, its limestone dales, ancient meadows and stone-walled farmland creating a pastoral and intimate scenery that is accessible and gentle by comparison with the moorland above. Dovedale, Lathkill Dale and the Manifold Valley are among the finest limestone dales in Britain, their clear streams, wooded slopes and exposed white limestone creating a landscape of delicate beauty that draws walkers and cyclists in great numbers. The market towns of Bakewell, Buxton and Matlock Bath provide visitor services and historical interest, and the great country houses of Chatsworth, Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall are all within or on the edge of the park.