Tag: festive breaks

Why a Peak District village is the UK’s best place for the real Christmas spirit

A festive, pre-Christmas break in the heart of the Peak District National Park.

I was on assignment for Telegraph Travel to find the real spirit of Christmas away from the tacky gifts and gimmicky light shows.

Here’s a taster of the text:

Castleton’s tight-knit community grew from the building of Peveril Castle, one of England’s earliest Norman fortresses.

Henry II added the keep in 1176 and it became popular with visiting dignitaries as a hunting lodge, hub of the Royal Forest of the Peak.

The imposing ruins still loom over the community, albeit today under custody of English Heritage.

Below it, Peak Cavern boasts the largest natural cave entrance in the UK with evidence of its rope-making heritage still visible.

When Lord Byron visited Derbyshire in the early 1800s, he proclaimed:

“There are things in Derbyshire as noble as Greece or Switzerland.”

Queen Victoria was less effusive, however, despite last-minute efforts by locals to disguise signs for Peak Cavern’s better-known local name — the Devil’s Arse [pictured above].

Read the full story via Telegraph Travel, The Peak District village that does Christmas better than anywhere else.

More information from Visit Peak District and Derbyshire.