On a warm summer’s day, the first few hundred metres of Padley Gorge in the Peak District is fairly busy, with families enjoying the shallow swimming holes along Burbage Brook. But continue a little further through the deep woodland gorge and you’ll soon have your choice of shaded swimming holes with not another person in sight.
There’s a network of formal and informal trails through Padley Gorge, with the two main trails following Burbage Brook on both sides.
Three bridges over Burbage Brook allow you to create a short or a long loop; there there are also a few informal trails ans places where you can rock-hop across the creek.
Whether you’ve got an hour or half a day to explore Padley Gorge, it feels like you’re far from civilisation, with beautiful swimming holes (some deep enough to cool off in)…
…and numerous cascades over mossy boulders.
Getting to Padley Gorge
There are multiple access points to Padley Gorge, which is in Derbyshire in the Peak District between the village of Grindleford and the A6187 road. One of the most popular trailheads is from Grindleford Station, where there is parking and a kiosk. The signposted trail follows Burbage Brook to Longshaw Estate, which is about 2.4km one-way.
You can follow the main path, or take one of the many informal trails that follow the brook.
The loop walk below is just under a mile (1.4km), but you could extend this to a 3-4 mile hike by continuing to Longshaw Estate (which has a tea room and shop).
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