Cycling The White Peak Loop – glorious gravel in Derbyshire

Join us as I ride The White Peak Loop — a stunning 42-mile circular cycling route through the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District! From scenic railway trails and quiet country lanes to historic towns and breathtaking views, this ride has it all.

We kick off in Rowsley, wind through the dramatic tunnels of the Monsal Trail, pass the charming streets of Bakewell, and cruise along the elevated paths of the High Peak Trail. With a mix of traffic-free tracks, gentle gravel, and a few tougher sections, this is the perfect weekend bikepacking escape.

Whether you’re planning your own trip or just love watching cycling adventures, hit play and come along for the ride!

🎥 What’s in this video:

Route highlights and scenic views 🌄

Tips for planning your own White Peak Loop ride 🗺

Bike and gear setup for the trail 🚲

Hidden gems along the route 💎

📍 Route: White Peak Loop, Derbyshire, UK
📏 Distance: 42 miles (68 km)
🕒 Duration: 2–3 days (ideal for bikepacking)
🚴 Difficulty: Moderate – mix of gravel, road, and short hike-a-bike sections

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#WhitePeakLoop #BikepackingUK #PeakDistrictCycling #CyclingAdventure #GravelRide #MonsalTrail

Route:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2110712733?share_token=a36DvVpC8fXQsesiam1ZaM4RAQ8KMwiw8k0Li9MpHhbNvngwit&ref=wtd

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Good morning. Welcome back to another Bike Ventures video. I’m Rob for those of you that haven’t watched the channel before. And today we’re in the beautiful Darbisha Dales. Going to go out into the Peak District shortly. Uh today I’m doing the White Peak Loop, 42.2 miles. Um, it’s a loop that’s existed for a long time. A lot of locals have done it, including myself. Uh, Darish County Council have recently done quite a bit of work on it to improve it and make it a bit more accessible. Signposted it up, publish the route. So, I thought today I’ll show you that. I’ll show you some of the interesting things where you grab a coffee, where you could perhaps camp if you’re going to do it in more than a couple of days or more than a day. It is very easily doable in one day. 42 mi with 2,000 ft of climbing, but you wanted to make a trip of it. There’s offshoot, so you could just do 20 odd miles a day if that’s your thing. Um, yeah. So, today we’re going to take in the Montel Trail, which we’ll be joining shortly, just down here. We’re just over Haden Hall and the old tunnel, which was the railway lines, just over the back of those trees. So, we’re going to drop onto the Monsul Trail to the end of the Monsul Trail today. We’re going to hike a bike up Chiale and I’ll discuss that when we get there and then we’re going to cross the Penine Bride way over onto the High Peak Trail down the High Peak trail to the Cromford Canal. We’re on the canal through Matlock Bath and Matlock and then back up through Darlyale to Rousey where I’ve parked at the old station site today. So, I hope you enjoy and I’ll see you on the trails. Yeah, this used to be an absolute bone shaker, this section. So, yeah, fair play to the council. I know some people would say that they possibly sanitized it a bit too much, but if they’re trying to make it accessible uh to get tourism in, I really do get it. And why not? You know, this before this was, whilst I’ve ridden it on a gravel bike, you could argue that some of it was a bit uh a bit techy and more suited to a a mountain bike. So, fair play to a They’ve not done this section yet. Well, this is still a little bit uh bumpy in places. better than it was, but still a little bit rough. So, if you have got young ones with you who don’t like descending on bumpy descents, then just bear that in mind. And the council have advertised it as a familyfriendly route and in places it is. In other places definitely isn’t. Say at the minute probably 75% is family friendly. We see all the lambs out. Laming times early May at the minute. Yeah. Good morning. Hello. Hello. Yeah. Looking quite sure that that lamb not going to try and get through this gate. We don’t want that, do we? He was He was curious little fella. He’s just behind me there. Right. So, I’ve just joined the Monsole trail. Look, there we go. Right at the end. So, just passed Haden Hall. Bake well’s just over my left shoulder there. So, as we get a bit closer, you come through the old Bakewell station and you can nip off into the town if you want. Grab a breakfast or coffee, fish and chips depending on what time of day it is. Yeah. Cool. So, see you on the trail. So the most trail currently riding on was the line and through to Bston and then onto Manchester from Derby. And it’s a stunning line. A lot of old architecture left. Bridges, platforms, station buildings. Point those out as we go along. But it really is fantastic. One of my favorites. as busy as it can be in summer. It’s an absolute stunner. So, we’re just coming into Bakewell station here. You just see the platform on the left there. Look, obviously the track beds now raised. You can see a lot lower than this. The trains just come thundering in. So, there’s a platform edge. Look. And on the left was the station building. on the right. That’s actually just the facade. There’s nothing there. Just coming up on Hasset station. Now you see how wide it is here because this was sidings as well. This was a very very busy line. Just around that big tree behind that bench there and the hedge is the station car park. And then you just see the buildings, the station coming into view. Platforms are no longer there. But the building is beautifully preserved and like I said, very very popular. Yeah, there’s station building on the right. Look, beautiful. So these bridges are lot of bridges on this line. Awesome. We’re just coming up on Longston station here. We still got both platforms and the station building is now a private residence. And there’s a little foot path. Come on. little foot path just near the bridge. So you get up into Longston Village. Okay. So just at Longston or what was Longston train station. Now you see the platforms behind me. There’s the old station building. Uh the reason this platform’s so long, here’s a little nugget for you. Is just up there. Look, is the hole and the uh the owner of the hole and this plot of land said that if the railway was going to come through here and the station was going to be built here that he had his own private access wasn’t accessible to the public so he could get on the train if he so chose. So what the trains used to do is pull in, let passengers on, and then it’d creep forward so that he could get on to his own private carriage that was further down the train. But yeah, this is a stunner. This this is a another cracking example of what was once here. So anyway, we’re going that way. So one thing I didn’t mention about this trail is from Bakewell, it’s predominantly uphill. It’s only slight, but you do kind of feel it in your legs all the way up there. Six or seven miles to um Millersdale station. So, yeah, let’s put you back on the bike and we’ll get going. So, we’re just coming up to the first tunnel shortly. So, I’ll leave the camera on, but not sure how good it’ll be in low light. this new camera. I can tell you one thing though, it’s going to be cold in them. Even on a hot day, you go into them and it’s like going into a fridge. You come back out into the heat. But today, I’m going to go from cold to colder. So hopefully I’ll feel warmer when I come out. You never know. So the tunnels are lit. are they only till dusk. So if you come down here at night, they’re not so not the shortest things either. So got to keep your wits about. Yeah. If you’re wearing sunglasses, just drop them down onto the bridge of your nose so you’ve got a bit more visibility. But I can see there’s no one in it today, just me, which is nice. You do get the odd drip of rain on here as well. Yeah, they really are stunning. I’ll pop a couple of pictures up that I’ve took while I’m in here because the camera does let a lot of light in and they’re amazing. You really are. So, we’re going to come out onto the absolutely stunning Monsul head vioaduct. It’s one of the most famous. You know, I think everyone’s probably seen a picture of this. It is an absolute beauty. Come on then. There she is. Put a picture up for you of what it looks like from above or the side. It’s an absolute beauty. I’ve seen some cracking pictures of trains exiting the tunnel coming over there as well. And then just ahead you can see one platform on the left. Now, the reason there’s only one platform left, and that one is stone, because the one that was on the right was wooden and hung over the hillside. Yeah, just on the right there. And again, see if I can find a picture. I have seen some but yeah must have been a precarious platform edge that there we go. Look at that valley river’s just there. Look in the bottom meanders round. You just see it over there meandering round goes all the way around to Crestbrook. Yeah. Absolutely stoning. I mean if the camera will show you it. Look how high up that that hillside is there. And then there’s the tunnel we’re going into, which is Littton Tunnel. And that’s the one we’ve just come out of, which is Cresbrook Tunnel. Okay. So, we’re just coming into Millersale now. Two lovely vioads here. One we’re riding along and then the one on the right, which as you can see currently undergoing some renovation. It was in a sorry state. This was such a busy line. They had to build an additional vioaduct. So it’s great to see that they’re doing work. So this is Miller’s Dale. The platforms on this line here are now gone. I’ll take you in and show you. You got cafe and toilets. And there’s a little info board there if you fancy having a read. So there’s the two vioaducts. Look, we’ve just come in on this one here. And that’s the one that’s being worked on currently. Station buildings. Look, you can see all the extra platforms just over here that’s not there. This one’s here. And this one’s here. And there was sidings over in what’s now the car park. So yeah, this was a very very busy station. Yeah, that’s it. Now we can’t actually go down there. The engine shed has been refurbished in the past few years and there’s loads of pictures and info boards up in there. It doesn’t like we can go in there today. They’re doing some maintenance, so we’re just going to roll on past. But there is a calf and there is public toilets as well. And you can also park here. So you could park here and go down into Bakewell and back or you could park here and start the full loop. Just coming up to the lime kils at the moment. So, if you can see where these these fences are, these are the kils and there’s a foot path up to the top up there. But yeah, you can walk in there and you can have a look. And that’s the only one that’s the only one that’s still standing on this line. But I do recommend you stop and have a look. So we are actually going up over that bridge and that’s the start of Gale. So you got the bike higher place just down to the right here just down a little slope a car park. So if you want to start at this end you could widale car park. We’re going to go up Chedale. I’m going to leave my camera on so I can show you that. As you can hear, I’m walking. Not cuz this section particularly steep. It is uphill but quite rocky and quite difficult to ride on. This is that bridge we’ve literally just ridden under. So this is the hiker bike section at Cheedale. So this is what I would call the section is not really it’s definitely not accessible and I say it’s not very family friendly. Now the reason I say that is you got young kids with you. I can guarantee you’ll be pushing the bikes up and the kids will be mourning cuz it’s quite long. You see it’s very rocky under foot. It’s not the easiest to walk on and it’s steep. So, we’re just at the top of Cheeale. So, I did do a bit of filming coming up in a little explaining why I don’t think that part’s suitable if you’ve got really young kids. Uh, but that’s not to say it’s not doable. We brought some kids up last year, me and some other adults on a bike packing trip and these competent riders who we ended up doing 72 mile in two days, but they found that tough and it was adults carrying two bikes up. So just bear that in mind if you’re with young kids that that’s probably not the best place. Once you’re up here, it’s pretty good going over onto the High Peak Trail, which is where we’re going to go. Now, one thing I uh haven’t shown you yet, these are the signs you need to be following for the White Peak Loop. So, follow those. You can’t go wrong. But there is a good GPX file. I’ll pop mine in the video, which is theirs as well. Uh but there is one on the Darbisha Council site on the White Peak site. Uh but we’re now on the Penine Bridal Way. So, let’s crack on. So, uh, 3 and a/4 miles from the High Peak Trail. Now just there is a lovely little coffee shop calf and a cracking campsite. So if you want to come for the weekend, two or three days and camp, do the loop. This is another perfect place where you can get on it. The A6 is just over there. So you’re right close to the main road. The A6 is what we where we started basically this morning at Rouseley. So, we’re going to cross that shortly. But, yeah, this will be a good base if you needed to. And still got an old fashioned red telephone box in the village just down there. So, that there is what’s left of the the old railway line. There is what now still exists of the railway line, and that’s where we’re going to go. So, parley here, 3 and 1/2 miles from here, and there’s a cafe, public toilets, and that’s where the Sizzington Trail and the High Peak Trail split off. So, we’ll talk about that more when we get there. So, this is the Royal Oak at Herdlo campsite. Fantastic pub, food, lovely selection of ales and This is the site of the old uh station. As you can see, nothing left. So yeah, highly recommend Royal Oak camping, food, cracking beers. Okay, so we’ve just left parsley here now. We’re at about 19 miles. So, we’re just shy of halfway for the full route. And then just ahead here is where the High Peak Trail and the Tisington Trail converge. So, if you wanted to add extra on, you can do the the line Tinton Trail down to Ashborne. There’s a couple of campsites just off the trail. So if you wanted to extend it, you go down there, camp, and then come back up the Tizzon Trail next day to the junction here. So the Tizzon Trail is the one on the right, and we’re going to take the one on the left. Also, you can see just down to the right there, some glamping pods. So you could always use this cuz it’s nearly halfway. If you wanted to do 20 mile each day or thereabouts, you can stay in those pods. Look at that fantastic cutting there on the Isington Trail. Absolute beauty. But we’re staying on the high peak and we’re going to head down towards Worksworth down the three inclines, Opton, Middleton, and sheep pastures incline down to the Comfort Canal and then we’ll go back through Matlock Bath, Matt Log, pick up the White Peak Trail, back into Rley. So yeah. So here we go. High Peak Trail. Point to note, this ahead that looks like a bridge is actually a tunnel. Short, but it is long enough to be classed as a tunnel. And just above on both sides of the bridge is a a date plate. Very ornate. Whoever whoever made them, one of them’s got his name on. I forget the name now actually. And the other’s got confident and high peak railway on 1825. So this year 2025 is the 200 year anniversary of when this railway line was open, which is I don’t know, beggars belief, doesn’t it? 200 years. Fantastic. But yeah, so there’s the tunnel. You can just see the stone there. [Music] Look. Fantastic. So, put you back on the bike in a second. If you look as we come out of this tunnel, there’s another stone there with 1825 on it. So, yeah, well worth stopping and just having a quick look. I’m going to put you back on the bike now and we’re going to head down the High Peak Trail. So, we’re just coming up on the uh A515 again. So, second time we’re crossing this. We just thought I’d show you this this pile of bricks just there. This was the site of the crossing keepers cottage. So, you can see the line goes straight ahead. There used to be a set of crossing gates here and he go out and stop traffic when the trains came across. So that’s the remnants of it there. Nothing left apart from a pile of rubble. We’re just coming up on an old uh quarry here. So I’m going to show you this cuz it’s cool. So this bit’s fenced off. This is the old crane there. Look. Just take me camera off the So there’s the old crane. Look, hand cranked possibly. There still even set of rails in there. Look, some sleepers and the tracks. This crane used to be able to move up and down here to load into the wagons. There’s a set of rails just through them trees there where I’m assuming you used to tip into into something. But yeah, fantastic little place. And there’s a couple of benches there where you can stop and have a quick bite to eat or a drink and you know, it’s fairly safe up there. You can let the kids have a wander around and have a look. Yeah. Cool. I just thought I’d show you that kiln there. One they rebuilt last year that it was a pile of rubble for years. and they’ve uh rebuilt it. So, yeah, it’s fantastic. Really cool to see awesome things like that. And then, don’t if you can see just there, that line of bricks just the other side that goes all the way down there. That was an incline as well for um a railway that went off. Just thought I’d show you this view. So we’ve got Staffordshire right over there and then just over there is the Tisington Trail. So what we were on or what we saw and we came left and the Tinton went right is is just over there. So when you’re over there on the Tentington Trail, which you can’t really see from here, but it is over there, you’ve got that view over towards Mining Law. So yeah, it’s uh it’s nice to to see this stuff. I mean, would have been amazing seeing the plumes of smoke from both sets of trains coming up on these railways. Yeah, look at that. It’s a beautiful, beautiful surface with amazing views. Yes, highly recommend. And the good thing about the High Peak Trail compared to some of the others is that even in the height of summer, it’s not as busy. So yeah, if you fancy coming out and just doing a trail, I highly recommend the high peak. Whether you park at Parsley here and then come and hire a bike, you can get the high peak’s pretty flat, so you can get from Parsley here to Middleton top and back avoiding the inclines, which means you don’t have to do them three big hills. So, well, actually, you have to do one of them. I do apologize, but it’s the easiest of the three, but yeah, look at these views. A huge quarry there and views right over in Staffordshire. Even today on a fairly cloudy day, you still got stunning views. [Music] [Music] So this just behind me here, this is Harbor Rocks. There’s a building there is an old I think an engine house, but not for bumping. I think it housed some sort of electrical motor that’s powering the mine. This was an old lead mine. So these concrete platforms that are left these platforms that are left are the only thing left of it. I’ve never been able to find any pictures of it as an active mine and I believe it closed 1920s 1930s. So there’s very little out there. But you can explore it and walk around the steps and it’s interesting to see. There’s a couple of little caves higher up on the hillside can get in so far. Uh there’s a trig point on top and there’s a big stone chair up there that you can sit in as well. I think it’s called Lord Seat, but I could be wrong. But yes, it’s nice to see there’s a little access just off the trail further down here. So yeah, another little point of interest for you. Okay, so at Middleton Top now. There’s some trains, wagons going up and down the incline. That’s in its heyday. It’s 1960s. It did close in 67. There’s a winding house itself. This fantastic chimney. There’s a wagon just to the left. Look, just waiting to go down the incline, which is where we’re going. Obviously, the wagon isn’t. Yeah, you’ve got a cafe. that building there. Toilets, bike tire. So you could park here and cycle partially here and back or park down to here and back. If you want to go down the inclines there that way, but bear in mind you’ve got some climbing to do coming back. So we got works just down the bottom here. So that’s where we’re going to go down the inclines. Now do have to be careful. So, this is one of the other sections that if you’re with young kids, these inclines are steep. This one in particular is not as steep as the other one, but you’ve kind of got to pick your line quite well. There’s a lot of like channels across to stop it getting washed out to allow water to run away. So, you just got to be careful cuz you hit them quite some of the lips quite big on them. Um, so yeah, this is one of the sections that I don’t think is ideal for kids, but if kids are fairly competent, it’s more than doable. So this is a 1 in8 gradient, but that’s still fairly steep. Oh, they resurfaced it. Ah, so what I’ve just said might not actually be true. You can just see on the left there, look, the the stones, but actually they were they were more pronounced recently. So, yeah. Oh, that’s not bad. Actually, running up and down this for years thinking, “Oh, it’s a bit it’s the worst section.” But actually, yeah. Oh, they’ve done a good job. Yeah, that’s nice. Cuz you used to have to weave left and right to try and avoid all these high curb stones. Yeah, they’ve done a good job. Didn’t realize they’d resurface this section again. Just making it a bit more, you know, user friendly. You know, they publicized this the route. So, it’s good that they come and try and improve the trails cuz some of them were not for everyone prior to this. Yeah. Good job, council. Good job, Darish Council. So, my computer’s telling me this is minus 13% in places. – 10 to -3. So this section here, you can see this is what it used to be like all the way down. You just got to be careful. I’ll show you some of these drop offs aren’t the easiest things. The kind of things that can a confident rider can knock you off your path. So you just got to be mindful of that. So just at the bottom here behind this gate, my little fence on the old winding wheels that was used with a pulley from the engine at the top to pull the frames up that incline. Just see the canal in the bottom there just below or before the rugby goes. We’re going down there in a bit. There’s the old winding engine house. for sheep pastures incline. So that’s where we’re going next. I’ll video it so you can see what it looks like. A lot longer than the last one. Just as steep. Again, if you got young kids, I’ll I’ll let you make the choice. I’m just warning you. [Music] surface is pretty good on this section, but it is steep. So if you if you’re with someone who doesn’t like descending and this is probably not not a part of the route you want to be doing your solution cuz you’ve got to get down a big hillside either way. Like I always say to my wife, you control the speed, you got the brakes. [Music] So just down here on the left there’s a hook and there was a set of intermediary uh like pulleys. Quite often the chains would come off that pulley and it was uh someone’s job to come out and get them back on can’t imagine was a pleasant job. Imagine some heavy tooling was needed to do it. Yeah. This little pot on the left there. Look, that’s what that was for. There’s a little info board if you want to have a read up. [Music] So this is where the Biden High Peak Railway terminated. So these wagons are open at certain times of the year. There’s an old uh water tank that used to fill up the steam engines. So, we’re now running alongside the Cromford Canal, which there still some of it in water, but it ends down at Ambergate, few miles behind us, and it ends at Cromford Mill, which is about a mile. So, there’s not much of it left. You can walk quite a bit. There’s a lovely lovely old cottage that’s been restored recently just a mile or so back the other way and an wolfside engine shed cuz the railway used to run alongside for goods and that’s how they used to get goods from the canal up out into the high peak and vice versa. Thank you. So you’ve got the current main line down to our right which goes down to Derby. Oh yeah. A It’s cool, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, it’s a lovely peaceful stretch. Again, it is it is for all users, but just be courteous and considerate. Fairly wide. Always a good surface, even in winter, to be honest. Yeah, certain times of year, this water’s got a lovely color to it. And it’s quite blue in the middle. Then where it shallows out, obviously it’s uh well, not as blue. Hi. Yeah, it’s a lovely section of canal there. Turn the camera off cuz it’s quite a busy stretch. So, we just come into Comfort Mill. It’s where the canal ends this way. Nice cafe. There is parking. So, another place you could uh park up to do the loop for parts of it. Yeah. Yeah. Nice cafe. That’s just on the left there where umbrellas are. So, this is the uh one of the sections where it ain’t ideal with young kids. This is the A6. There is a foot bath there, but it is a foot bath. However, can’t see many people being too upset with you trying to keep your kids safe. So, this road does get busy in summer and there’s a lot of traffic lights, m baths busy, so the traffic tends to be very slow. So, probably not going to be too bad. at certain times of the year, but I just thought I’d show you because you can see how busy the traffic is and you do get big wagons coming through here. So, just bear that in mind. So, this is Matt Lock Bath. It’s got a very seaside feel to it. about 10 fish and chip shops, sweet shops, ice cream shops, arcades, or as you can see, even on a weekday. It’s popular with motorbikes. On a weekend and in the summer, this place is snided. You need to bear that in mind when you’re working out what time you’d be coming through here roughly. It is busy. Okay, we’ve got just over four miles left. We’ve just got on the trail alongside the uh Pete rail section of the old railway line that used to go from Derby through to Manchester, which is now the Monel Trail further on, but obviously we can’t ride all of it now. Higher. So yeah, this is lovely. I mean, this just shows you that it is possible to have a line and cycling pedestrian trail alongside. Yeah, this is a beauty. So, we’re just heading towards Darly Dale. The A6 is just to his right. And just so you know, it was about four miles through Matlock Bath and Matlock on fairly busy roads. Right. So there we go. That’s the White Peak loop done. 42.3 miles. Couple of bits which I’ve already highlighted so I’m not labor on them. But it is a fantastic route if you want to come and explore the Peak District and Darbisha Dales. Tons of cafes, plenty of campsites, pubs galore, and it’s lovely. So you could do it in a day, half a day. A day really easy. Half a day if you were pushing it took me four hours. But you know what? It’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful part of the country. If you’ve not been before, this is a good way to see it on 90% trafficfree trails. So, do come, do enjoy. Thank you very much for watching. My name’s Rob. The channel’s Bike Ventures. Please like, subscribe, share. Any comments, stick them down below. Thank you very much for watching. Washing. Thank you very much for watching. and I’ll see you on the next video. Thank you.