Browse through our blog posts to find out what life is like at Hoe Grange Holidays along with some great ideas for days out in the Peak District.
In today's fast moving technological world we sometimes forget to slow down and take time to enjoy and explore the world around us.
However help is at hand from the latest Bradt Slow Travel Guide which celebrates our fabulous Peak District.This captivating and extensive guide is the perfect travel companion detailing where to taste the region's best produce, which accommodation offers character and colour (naturally featuring our Hoe Grange Holidays self-catering log cabins!), travel tips on how to make the most of your stay and some fascinating facts surrounding the quirky traditions and stories of local folks.
Bradt’s Slow Travel Peak District brings a new perspective to this much-loved area. Slow down and let expert local author Helen Moat guide you to not just all the well-known places, but away from the crowds to uncover the hidden corners of the Peak District. The author’s love of interesting and colourful stories is linked to the natural and manmade features of the area, highlighting the quirky and unusual, places and points of interest off the beaten tourist track, from dales to abandoned mills, historical ruins, strange follies and irresistible pubs.
Helen moved to the Peak District in 1999 and has over time come to realise that "you could live a lifetime in the Peak District and still not cover every bridleway, packhorse route or public footpath. This book is only a taster - and hopefully an inspiration for your own exploration.
Writing Slow Travel Peak District has allowed me to engage with the Slow philosophy as never before: to look up, look down and catch the detail; to stand and stare and ponder; to wander down hidden dells or jitties. I've learned to stop and chat with strangers: National Trust volunteers, foodies, twitchers, ramblers,climbers and river swimmers, to name but a few - and found them eager to share their knowledge of and passion for the Peak District. I've learned to read the landscape, from the ruin on the hilltop to the tell-tale rise of an Iron Age hillfort or an abandoned mill. I've learned the songs of birds and to scan the hillsides for signs of life. It has been a life-enriching experience."
As part of her research for the guide Helen visited us at Hoe Grange and loved our cosy log cabins nestled in the undulating limestone hills.
"This pretty, immaculate farm, set in rolling countryside below the High Peak Trail offers four spacious log cabins, three sleeping four and one sleeping six. Owners, Felicity and David, have worked hard to reduce the business’s carbon footprint with solar panels and wind turbine, supplying much of the farm’s energy requirements. The couple are fastidious in their attention to detail and in their care of visitors, personally greeting guests on arrival, and welcoming them with homegrown flowers, home-made biscuits and bread, along with free-range eggs from the farm. The lantern lit barrel-shaped sauna and wood-fuelled hot tub on the edge of the farm also add a nice touch for total relaxation under the stars at the end of a busy day . But it’s the award-winning ‘access for all’ accommodation, along with stabling for horse owners that makes this accommodation special. A few hundred yards up through fields will take walkers, cyclists and horse riders onto the High Peak Trail, with stunning views of the countryside. There’s even a Boma 7 all-terrain wheelchair for guests with limited mobility."
Whether following Helen's favourite walks and bike rides, venturing into hidden dales, caves and ravines, ambling through the national park's charming villages or biting into a freshly baked Bakewell Pudding, you'll find the Slow Travel The Peak District goes far beyond conventional guide books in celebrating our special region and is an invaluable source of information - I can't put my copy down!
Why not order your own copy of Bradt’s new Slow Travel Peak District guidebook?
For an exclusive 20% discount visit www.bradtguides.com and enter the code HOEGRANGE at the checkout.
Happy reading!
Felicity