Walks from Matlock

Nine Ladies is a Bronze Age stone circle constructed between 3300-900 BCE; legend associates stones with women punished for Sunday dancing.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Great views over Matlock and Darley Dale. Riverside footpath, unsurfaced paths, farm tracks, tarmac lane, stone and wooden stiles, footbridge and railway crossing and paved path.

Warnings: Take care for traffic at the road crossing and for trains at the railway crossing; the footbridge can be slippery and watch out for encroaching branches.

Walk details: Derwent Valley Line Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

Some cracking views - especially the Crowchin Edge viewpoint. An enjoyable but demanding hilly route, not to be underestimated, with lots of steep ups and downs, rough ground, awkward pinch stiles and some very steep, loose or slippery slopes through quarries and woods. It crosses farmland, quiet lanes, old quarry workings, woods and a dam and with several places where navigation requires care; the going is rough and muddy after rain. Crosses the dam of Stubbing Pond ('Great Pond of Stubbing'). Info board about the Chesterfield Round Walk near Haselhurst Farm. Extensive woodland.

Lunch: Ashover, roughly midway, is a picturesque village with shops and at least three pubs.

Warnings: Steep slopes, including one descent so steep walkers used the 'fifth point of contact' to avoid slipping; loose ground in old quarries. Awkward and overgrown pinch stiles. Tricky navigation in several spots where path lines are unclear - a 1:25000 map advised. Care on the short stretch of Holestone Gate Road. Muddy after rain.

Walk details: Slow Ways.