Buxton, High Peak, Derbyshire
Buxton. Spas. Spring water.
Buxton. Spas. Spring water.
A certainty on our itinerary when holidaying in the Peak District was to explore the historical spa town of Buxton.
Though almost slap-bang in the middle of the Peak District, Buxton isn’t actually in the National Park. Look…
Buxton, in the Peak District area
Image courtesy of VisitBuxton.co.uk.
This means Buxton has excellent links to other parts of the National Park.
Buxton has been inhabited since the Stone Age, but the first major development of the area came courtesy of the Romans. They named the settlement Aquae Arnemetiae, that is, "Baths of the grove goddess".
Various peoples throughout history have treasured Buxton for its natural geothermic spring, which constantly gushes water out at a steady 28ºC. The town grew in the 18th century due to the Dukes of Devonshire, but it was really in the Victorian era where Buxton drew the crowds. Touring Victorians were attracted to the reputed healing powers of the natural spring.
We enjoyed a long and pleasant meander around the town, on what turned out to be a wonderfully clear autumnal day. Buxton really showed off what it had to offer.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony FE 28–70mm f3.5–5.6 OSS zoom and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC prime lenses. RAWs developed and edited in Lightroom for iPad using Digistock’s Ektar 100 profile.
Buxton, High Peak, Derbyshire by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
We first wandered around Buxton Park before entering the town proper. Beautiful autumn colours were really starting to pop all around the park. Geese were plentiful, too, and clearly very accustomed to humans.
A fellow tourist takes in the view across one of the many ponds and lakes in the park. In actuality, these ponds are all part of the River Wye, which was heavily landscaped in the 19th century.
The park and Pavilion Gardens were opened in 1871, designed by Edward Milner, a well-known landscape architect. He also developed three parks in Preston, Lancashire, amongst many others.
Another lovely English scene, full of ducks, meticulously maintained landscaping, and Victorian architecture.
Buxton Opera House was designed by Frank Matcham in 1903. It’s reportedly the highest opera house in the country. Matcham also designed several London theatres, including the London Palladium, the London Coliseum, and the Hackney Empire.
Buxton saw a decline as a spa resort in the early 20th century. The Opera House re-opened in 1979 with the launch of the Buxton Festival, and the town saw rejuvenation as a base for exploring the Peak District.
Part of the Pavilion Gardens is this 19th century conservatory. Originally, the building was used as a small concert hall, complete with organ. In 1982 it was remodelled as a greenhouse conservatory, with tropical plants and a fish pond.
The Conservatory now houses many beautiful plants, several of which are extremely rare to find anywhere else in the UK.
A visit of Buxton is not complete without checking out St. Ann’s Well and the Pump Room. The room was built in 1894 to dispense the well's water from taps for drinking. Now restored and managed as a Tourist Information Centre, I shot this 10-shot panorama to really take in the Victorian architecture.
Buxton Town Hall, opened in 1889, was designed in the style of a French château. It now houses the offices of High Peak Borough Council.
Around the corner from the Opera House, we found this wonderfully preserved piece of living history: a Victorian chemists’. The shop assistant even showed us a ledger they’ve kept of patients and their prescriptions all the way back to the Victorian times.
The crowning jewel of Buxton: the Crescent. It is often compared to the more famous Royal Crescent in Bath, but some argue that Buxton’s is “more richly decorated and altogether more complex”.
The Crescent was built in the late 18th century for the 5th Duke of Devonshire. His plan was to elevate Buxton into a popular Georgian spa town. It was built as a unified structure incorporating a hotel, five lodging houses, and a grand assembly room with a fine painted ceiling. By the mid-1980s the last part of the Crescent that was still functioning as a hotel closed due to the high cost of necessary repairs. Then, the whole building was closed when major structural problems were discovered in 1992.
What followed was a couple of decades of the building changing hands, fundraising for essential repairs and upgrades, and consulting on its future. Finally, in October 2020, Ensana reopened the hotel following 17 years of refurbishment.
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New Lanark & the Falls of Clyde, Scotland, Winter
We’re back in the Highlands for a week!
We’re back in the Highlands for a week!
On the way up from Cumbria, we stopped off roughly halfway through to check out a place we’ve been meaning to visit for ages: New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde.
New Lanark village—now a World Heritage Site—is a “planned settlement“, founded in the late 18th century Scottish industrialist David Dale alongside English entrepreneur Richard Arkwright. Cotton mills were built here to take advantage of the only waterfalls along the River Clyde, and housing was also built for all the mill workers.
Further up the Clyde, one can find several large waterfalls especially the pinnancle Corra Linn, which drops 84ft and is the 9th largest waterfall in the UK.
Although there was disappointingly little water in the Clyde, after a relatively dry winter, the walk itself was beautiful, the scenery gorgeous, and the village fascinating.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my Vivitar “Series 1” 28–105mm f2.8–3.8 zoom lens. RAWs developed in Capture One for iPad using Digistock’s Ektar 100 film profile, then finalised in Affinity Photo 2 for iPad.
New Lanark & the Falls of Clyde, Scotland, Winter by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
There is no public parking allowed in New Lanark, so you have to park in the designated car park above the village then follow the footpath down. Here I framed the bell tower above the New Buildings.
One of many things that makes New Lanark unusual is that there are no street names. Instead, the buildings are named, and often very directly so. The nearby block of four houses are called Wee Row, and the larger block of 8 are Double Row.
We exited the footpath into the village proper, following the signs towards the Falls of Clyde. The buildings on the left are named New Buildings, millworker housing, named so because they are the newest to be built.
A closer look at Wee Row and Double Row in the distance. The longest block of housing on the right is called, you guessed it, Long Row. Nearby, to the left, is David Dale’s House, one of the founders of the village.
Walking down the street alongside New Buildings, with the bell tower front and centre in the block. It used to ring every day to single the start of work, but now only rings once a year on New Year’s Day.
We followed the signage towards the Falls of Clyde, but looked back to capture this great summary view of the village.
The first falls you come across are a series of powerful cascades known as Dundaff Linn. They’ve created a series of cataracts in the river bed, tessellating together like Tetris.
Further up from Dundaff Linn, a weir has been constructed allowing for this slightly unusual composition that I enjoy.
The first glimpse of the main waterfall of the Falls of Clyde: Corra Linn, dropping 84ft. Looking a little dry unfortunately after a relatively dry winter. It’ll be good to revisit after rain.
Further up the gorge is the third of the Falls, known as Bonnington Linn. These falls also mark the point where you return back to New Lanark.
We returned back to New Lanark close to the river. Alongside the river are the main Mill buildings. Mill 3 still has its roof in tact, but Mill 2 now has a roof garden and cracking views.
The waters of Mill Lade trickle alongside Mill 2, leading towards Mill 1, which is now the New Lanark Mill Hotel.