Things to do in South Yorkshire

Castleton in the Peak District is one of the most comprehensively interesting villages in the national park, a settlement in the Hope Valley beneath Mam Tor whose combination of the remarkable concentration of show caves, the ruins of Peveril Castle on the limestone ridge above the village, the Blue John mineral unique to this area and the walking available on the surrounding gritstone and limestone hills creates a destination of exceptional variety and scientific interest. The four show caves accessible from the village represent different aspects of the remarkable cave system that honecombs the limestone below Castleton. Peak Cavern, accessible from the village centre through a dramatic gorge entrance, is the largest natural cave entrance in Britain, its great arched opening once housing a rope-making village of considerable complexity. The Blue John Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern contain deposits of Blue John, a semi-precious fluorspar mineral found only in the mines of Castleton and unique to this area of Derbyshire, whose purple and yellow banding has been worked into decorative objects since the Roman period. Speedwell Cavern, entered by boat along an underground canal, provides a different and entirely memorable cave experience. Mam Tor above the village, its summit accessible by a fine ridge walk, provides outstanding views of the Hope Valley and the contrast between the limestone White Peak to the south and the gritstone Dark Peak to the north, one of the most informative single viewpoints for understanding the Peak District geology.

Edale in the Hope Valley of the Peak District is the southern terminus of the Pennine Way, Britain's first and most celebrated long-distance walking route, a small valley village beneath the great escarpment of Kinder Scout that provides the starting point for the 430-kilometre walk to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. The combination of the Pennine Way tradition, the excellent walking available from the village on the Kinder Scout plateau and the dramatic Dark Peak landscape that begins immediately above the valley makes Edale one of the most historically significant and most visited walking destinations in Britain. The Kinder Scout plateau above Edale was the scene of the Mass Trespass of 1932, when a group of Manchester ramblers deliberately trespassed on the private moorland in defiance of the landowners who excluded public access to the high moors. The subsequent prosecution of the trespassers created national publicity and contributed to the long campaign for access to open country that eventually resulted in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act of 2000. The event is commemorated each year and has been recognised as one of the most significant acts of civil disobedience in the history of outdoor recreation in Britain. The village of Edale provides the visitor services, cafes and the Moorland Visitor Centre of the national park that serve both Pennine Way walkers beginning their journey and day visitors using the Hope Valley railway line to access the Peak District walking without a car.

Eyam in the Derbyshire Peak District is the village that sealed itself off during the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665 to prevent the disease spreading to the surrounding communities, a remarkable act of collective self-sacrifice that has made the village one of the most celebrated examples of communal heroism in English history and one of the most visited heritage destinations in the Peak District. The plague was brought to Eyam in a consignment of cloth from London and under the leadership of the rector William Mompesson and the nonconformist minister Thomas Stanley the village agreed to quarantine themselves rather than flee and risk carrying the disease to neighbouring settlements. The plague killed approximately 260 of the village's 800 inhabitants between 1665 and 1666, the plague graves scattered across the surrounding fields and gardens rather than concentrated in the churchyard providing the most tangible evidence of the scale of the mortality. The Plague Cottages where the outbreak began and the Boundary Stone where money was left in vinegar-filled holes to pay for supplies brought by outsiders are among the most visited sites in the village. The Eyam Museum provides an excellent account of the plague year and the village's response to it, and the annual Plague Commemoration service held in August at the outdoor Cucklett Delph church, where services were held in the open air during the plague to reduce infection risk, provides a living connection to the events of 1665.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is one of the most extraordinary houses in England, a building so ahead of its time and so boldly conceived that it has never quite stopped astonishing visitors in the four centuries since its construction. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick, the hall was a deliberate statement of power and cultural ambition from one of the most remarkable women of the Elizabethan age. Bess was born into relatively modest gentry in 1527 and through four strategic marriages accumulated a fortune that placed her second only to Queen Elizabeth I in wealth among the women of England. By the time she commissioned Hardwick Hall she was in her sixties and at the very peak of her influence, and the building she created reflects that confidence completely. Her initials ES, for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, are worked into the roofline in elaborate stone lettering so large they can be read from a considerable distance, an unmistakable declaration of ownership and ambition. The hall is most celebrated architecturally for its extraordinary expanse of windows, which led to the contemporary rhyme "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." At a time when glass was enormously expensive, the facades of Hardwick Hall are filled with it from ground to roof in a way that was genuinely unprecedented in English architecture. The windows flood the interiors with natural light and create a visual drama on the facade that looks almost modern in its transparency. Robert Smythson, who may have contributed to the design alongside Bess herself, created a building that pushed the technical boundaries of Elizabethan construction. The interiors are equally remarkable. Hardwick preserves one of the finest collections of Elizabethan textiles in existence, including tapestries, embroideries and needlework that Bess spent decades accumulating. Many pieces were worked by hand by Bess and her companions, including the captive Mary Queen of Scots, who spent years under Bess's guardianship at nearby Chatsworth. The Great High Chamber and the Long Gallery are among the grandest surviving Elizabethan rooms in England, their original furnishings still largely in place. The estate surrounding the hall includes a walled garden, an orchard and a deer park, as well as the ruins of the earlier Old Hardwick Hall that Bess had inhabited before commissioning this grander replacement. The contrast between the ruins of the old hall and the magnificence of the new one says everything about the ambition that drove this remarkable woman. Hardwick Old Hall is managed separately by English Heritage and stands close enough to view clearly from the gardens. Hardwick Hall is now in the care of the National Trust and is open to visitors throughout the year. The combination of exceptional architecture, extraordinary textiles, strong historical narrative and beautiful Derbyshire countryside makes it one of the most rewarding historic house visits in the country.

Hathersage in the Hope Valley on the edge of the Dark Peak is one of the most scenically and historically interesting villages in the Peak District, a settlement beneath the great gritstone escarpment of Stanage Edge whose combination of the magnificent walking immediately accessible on the surrounding gritstone moorland and edges, the Charlotte Brontë associations from her visits to the village in 1845 that contributed to the Jane Eyre character of Morton, and the grave of Little John, the legendary companion of Robin Hood, in the churchyard creates a destination of unusual literary and legendary depth. The walking from Hathersage is among the finest available from any Peak District village, Stanage Edge immediately above the village providing over a thousand rock climbing routes on the gritstone and the ridge walk along the edge providing views across the Hope Valley and Sheffield to the east and the Dark Peak moorland to the west. The Burbage and Millstone edges visible from the village provide further superb gritstone walking in a landscape that has attracted climbers and walkers from Sheffield since the late Victorian period. The Charlotte Brontë connection, established during her visit to her school friend Ellen Nussey in Hathersage in July 1845, placed the village in the landscape imagination of one of the greatest Victorian novelists. The house where she stayed, Moorseats, the local family names including Eyre that appear in her novel, and the name Morton for the village version of Hathersage all appear as direct borrowings in Jane Eyre, published in 1847.

Ladybower Reservoir in the Upper Derwent Valley of the Peak District is the largest of the three great Derwent Valley reservoirs and one of the most dramatically situated bodies of water in the Peak District, a Y-shaped reservoir beneath the dark gritstone moorland of the eastern Peak whose combination of the dam architecture, the reservoir landscape and the extraordinary history of the submerged villages of Derwent and Ashopton drowned when the reservoir was filled in 1945 creates one of the most historically and scenically interesting reservoir destinations in England. The Dambusters connection is Ladybower's most celebrated historical association. The Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb was tested on the reservoir in 1943 and the bombing crews of 617 Squadron practised their low-level dam-busting approach over the Derwent Valley reservoirs. The annual Dambusters Memorial flypast by Lancaster bombers over the Derwent dam commemorates this connection each year and draws large crowds of aviation enthusiasts. The drowned villages of Derwent and Ashopton create the most poignant dimension of the reservoir story, the communities evacuated when the reservoir was filled and the church steeple of Derwent visible above the waterline in drought years when the water level drops sufficiently. The reservoir shoreline walking and cycling provide excellent access to the surrounding Dark Peak moorland.

Mam Tor, which takes its name from the Old English and Celtic words meaning Mother Mountain, rises to 517 metres at the head of the Hope Valley in the Peak District National Park and offers some of the finest panoramic views in the Dark Peak. The summit is connected to neighbouring peaks along the Great Ridge by a clearly defined ridgeline walk that provides a satisfying and accessible circular route from Castleton, one of the most popular in the Peak District. The hill earns its nickname the Shivering Mountain from the geological instability of its eastern face, where alternating layers of hard millstone grit and softer shale have been subject to repeated landslips over thousands of years. The largest and most significant of these landslides destroyed the road that once crossed the hill's lower slopes, leaving the famous rippled and tilted tarmac of the old Mam Tor Road as a striking demonstration of what happens when a road is built on unstable ground. The road was officially closed to traffic in 1979 and has not been repaired, the authorities having accepted that the unstable geology makes any permanent repair futile. The summit is reached by a well-maintained stone path from the National Trust car park at Mam Nick, a steep but short ascent of around fifteen minutes that brings walkers onto the broad summit plateau topped by the remains of a large Bronze and Iron Age hillfort. The hillfort at Mam Tor is one of the largest in the Pennines, with ramparts and ditches enclosing over six hectares of the summit, and archaeological excavation has revealed evidence of permanent occupation during the Bronze Age, unusually for such an exposed hilltop location. The views from the summit are exceptional and justifiably famous. To the east the Hope Valley stretches towards Sheffield, with the Kinder Scout plateau visible to the north across the Edale valley. To the west the limestone White Peak gives way to the characteristic curves of the Cheshire Plain. On clear days the views extend across multiple counties, and the position of the summit at the junction of the Dark and White Peak landscapes means that two quite different geological worlds are visible simultaneously. The Great Ridge walk east from Mam Tor to Lose Hill provides one of the finest ridge walks in the Peak District, a straightforward path along the crest with views on both sides throughout. Castleton village at the base of the hill provides excellent cafés, the magnificent Blue John Caverns and access to Peveril Castle, making the area one of the most rewarding destinations in the entire national park.

Padley Gorge in the Peak District is one of the finest examples of ancient oak woodland in the English uplands, a stream gorge on the Burbage Brook above Grindleford in the Derbyshire Derwent Valley that supports a remarkable temperate rainforest habitat of sessile oak, rowan, holly and birch whose ground layer of mosses, ferns and woodland plants thrives in the sheltered, humid conditions of the gorge. The combination of the ancient woodland, the stream cascades and the millstone grit boulders creating the gorge character makes Padley one of the most beautiful short woodland walks in the Peak District. The woodland is of considerable ecological importance as one of the few remaining fragments of the upland oak woodland that would have covered large areas of the Peak District gritstone country before woodland clearance for agriculture and fuel began in the prehistoric and medieval periods. The sessile oaks, many of them several centuries old, grow from the gritstone boulders in the contorted forms characteristic of ancient upland woodland, their mossy trunks and lichen-covered branches creating the layered texture of a genuinely ancient wood. The gorge is famous in Peak District birding circles for its pied flycatcher population, one of the most reliable nesting sites for this attractive summer visitor in the entire region. The flycatchers arrive from West Africa in late April and the males' white forehead patches and musical calls are characteristic of Padley Gorge throughout May and June. Wood warbler and redstart are also regular breeding species in the gorge, providing some of the finest songbird watching in the Peak District. The walk from Grindleford station through the gorge to Longshaw Estate above connects with the National Trust's extensive moorland and woodland at Longshaw for a rewarding circular walk.

Peveril Castle occupies one of the most dramatically positioned sites of any castle in England, perched on a limestone crag high above the village of Castleton in the Peak District with steep drops on three sides making it almost impregnable without the benefit of modern artillery. The combination of natural defensive strength, historic interest and sweeping views across the Hope Valley makes it one of the most rewarding castle visits in the north of England, accessible via a steep but short footpath from the village below. The castle was built shortly after the Norman Conquest by William Peveril, a knight who was among the followers of William the Conqueror and received extensive lands in the Peak District as a reward for his service. The Peveril family gave the castle its name and held it until its estates were forfeited to the crown following a succession of complications in the twelfth century. Henry II subsequently invested in the site, adding the square stone keep that remains the most prominent feature of the ruins today in 1176, providing the castle with a proper royal tower after earlier construction that had relied largely on the natural defensive properties of the crag itself. Sir Walter Scott set his 1823 novel Peveril of the Peak here, further cementing the castle's romantic reputation and drawing Victorian tourists to what was already a remarkable piece of landscape history. The novel is now largely forgotten but the castle's setting remains as atmospheric as any fictional treatment could wish. The keep, though roofless, retains most of its walls to full height, and the entrance passage and interior arrangement of rooms can still be traced clearly. The curtain wall following the edge of the crag encloses a large inner ward, and on the north side the natural limestone cliff forms the defensive wall without any additional construction being required. The gatehouse and various domestic buildings have been reduced to lower wall remnants but contribute to a sense of the full medieval complex. Below the castle, Castleton village offers a remarkable concentration of Peak District attractions: the show caves including Blue John Cavern, Speedwell Cavern, Peak Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern are all accessible from the village and between them represent some of the finest cave systems open to the public in England.

Sheffield Botanical Gardens are a beautifully maintained Victorian pleasure garden occupying nearly 20 acres in the residential suburb of Broomhill, less than two kilometres from the city centre. Opened to the public in 1836 by the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society, they represent one of the finest surviving examples of early Victorian landscape garden design in the north of England and provide a peaceful, richly planted refuge within easy reach of the city. The gardens were designed by Robert Marnock, a leading Victorian landscape gardener who adopted the gardenesque style then being advocated by John Claudius Loudon, an approach that emphasised the careful arrangement of plants to display each species to best individual advantage rather than creating an overall landscape effect. This produced a style of garden where paths wind through a series of distinct plant collections, each presented in well-designed settings that allow individual plants to be appreciated and studied as well as enjoyed aesthetically. The most architecturally significant feature is the range of three classical pavilions at the garden's northern boundary, Grade II listed structures designed in the Ionic style that originally served as conservatories for tender and exotic plants. These elegant buildings were restored between 2003 and 2012 at considerable cost and now house subtropical plants and cacti in their temperature-controlled interiors, functioning as they always did as display houses for plants that cannot survive the Sheffield climate outdoors. The plant collections at Sheffield Botanical Gardens reflect over 180 years of horticultural development and include a National Collection of Weigela as well as significant collections of ornamental grasses, roses, heathers and rare trees. The bear pit, a curious Victorian feature that originally housed a bear as a visitor attraction, has been repurposed as a sunken garden. The woodland section of the garden provides seasonal interest through spring bulbs and the autumn colour of mature specimen trees. Entry to the gardens is free throughout the year, making them one of the best value attractions in Sheffield. Events including outdoor theatre, flower shows and family activities take place throughout the year.

Stanage Edge in the Peak District is the most famous gritstone climbing crag in Britain, a continuous escarpment of millstone grit approximately four miles long above the Derwent Valley near Hathersage whose south-facing cliff faces provide over one thousand rock climbing routes. The edge is not only the principal centre of Peak District climbing but one of the most important venues in British rock climbing history, the location where many pioneering climbs that established British climbing culture were first achieved. The gritstone of Stanage has a distinctive friction quality that has shaped the technique of generations of British climbers, the rough granular surface requiring a different approach from limestone crags. The walking along the top of the edge provides one of the finest moorland ridge walks in the Peak District, with views westward across the Sheffield valley and eastward over the White Peak providing a panorama of the entire national park character. The Long Causeway, an ancient packhorse route crossing the edge at its highest point, provides the historic connection between the Dark Peak and White Peak. The combination of the climbing heritage, the ridge walking and the views make Stanage one of the most visited single destinations in the Peak District.