4 Best Sights in Bakewell, Manchester, Liverpool, and the Peak District

The United Kingdom's first-ever national park (inaugurated in 1951, paving the way for a further nine parks), the Peak District provides a wild green space for the estimated 20 million people who live within an hour’s journey of it, including the inhabitants of Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent, as well as for millions of visitors from outside the area. Located mostly in northern Derbyshire but including parts of Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, the national park is generally divided into the Dark Peak (gritstone moorlands) and the White Peak (limestone), but it has a remarkable diversity of landscapes that make it popular with hikers, cyclists, climbers, and cavers.

It's also much-loved for the spa towns, country houses, and heritage sites that are found within the park itself. Visitor centers with information on outdoor activities in the region can be found in Bakewell, Castleton, Derwent, and Edale. Public transport is patchy; it's best explored by car.

One of England's greatest country houses, the "Palace of the Peak" is the ancestral home of the dukes of Devonshire and stands in vast parkland grazed by deer and sheep. Originally an Elizabethan house, it was altered over several generations starting in 1686 and now has a hodgepodge look, though the Palladian facade remains untouched. It's surrounded by woods, gardens, greenhouses, rock gardens, and a water cascade—all designed by Capability Brown in the 18th century and, in the 19th, Joseph Paxton, an engineer as well as a brilliant gardener. Plan on a half day to explore the grounds; avoid Sunday if you can, as it gets very crowded.

Inside are intricate carvings, superb furniture, van Dyck portraits, Sir Joshua Reynolds's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Her Baby, John Singer Sargent's enormous Acheson Sisters, and fabulous rooms, including the Sculpture Gallery, the library, and the Painted Hall. On the estate, you'll also find a working farm with milking demonstrations, an adventure playground, cafés, restaurants, a tea shop, and a farm shop; you can even stay in several cottages scattered throughout the grounds.

One of England's finest stately homes, and perhaps the most authentically Tudor of all the great houses, Haddon Hall bristles with intricate period detail. Built between 1180 and 1565, the house passed into the ownership of the dukes of Rutland and remained largely untouched until the early 20th century, when the ninth duke undertook a superlative restoration that revealed a series of early decorative 15th-century frescoes in the chapel. The finest of the intricate plasterwork and wooden paneling is best seen in the superb Long Gallery on the first floor. A popular filming location, Haddon's starring roles include The Princess Bride (1985), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). It has its own on-site restaurant.

After a local tailor died of the plague in this tiny, idyllic, gray-stone village in 1665, locals isolated themselves from the outside world rather than risk the spread of Black Death (the area had hitherto been spared). They succeeded in containing the disease, but at huge cost; by the time it had run its course, most of the residents were dead. Their heroism is commemorated in florid memorials in the village churchyard. The small Eyam Museum puts everything into context, while the stately home Eyam Hall hosts tours (check the website for opening times as Eyam Hall closes intermittently throughout the year).