Subject: Cycling the Monsal Trail, finally Fri Jul 06, 2018 10:50 am
Those of you who were at Bakewell 2 years ago will remember all the rain. We took our bikes but never cycled the trail due to the weather.
Back we went this year, staying at the Beech Croft Farm campsite nearish to the Monsal trail. This is a pretty normal site with a fine loo block. Grass pitches will have a bit of slope so pick carefully. Hard standing is available if you want that. WiFi is free & ok for news and light surfing. Electricity is via a card. £5 deposit for the card & you put money on the card with the balance refunded at the end. We used 48p in 3 nights. Be aware to follow the instructions to get the card balance sorted at the end of the stay. We found it tricky. There is a shop and a few goats for kids. Good dog walk field.
You can walk to the Monsal trail including a rough path down a ravine. We chose to drive to a nearby car park at Miller's Dale. From there we cycled to Hassop where there is a large cafe & gift shop. Bakewell is a few miles more along the track.
There is cycle hire at various points along the trail by the way.
It's a nice cycle. Well maintained track, quite busy. We went through 3 long well lit tunnels and over the Monsal Head viaduct. It's quite picturesque with some old mill buildings to see and the ocassional pub signposted though none beside the path.
As it's mostly dead flat it's a very easy cycle.
We also cycled the Tissington / High Peak trail which is another disused railway now an excellent cycle path. We lunched at the Royal Oak pub which is a couple of miles from the Parsley Hey cafe/cycle hire car park. Excellent pub food.
The car parks are charged.
We were lucky enough to enjoy excellent weather so it made up for the 2016 trip. Being there during an England world cup game added to the evening fun as we received updates via the south and groans of other campers.
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