Dog-friendly Castleton

Long-standing cafe at the Castleton crossroads, first stop for most people off Mam Tor or Cavedale. It calls itself a dog-friendly cafe outright, which in Castleton is more useful than it sounds. The holiday let the same owners run does not take pets, so keep the two separate in your planning.

Six miles and three and a quarter hours, climbing the old coffin road to Hollins Cross on the Great Ridge then dropping to Hope and returning along the Peakshole Water. The Castleton visitor centre car park is the start and the walk can be split by the Hope Valley train, which takes dogs free between Hope and Hathersage. Sheep graze the ridge and the valley fields, so a two-metre fixed lead is needed near stock and from 1 March to 31 July on the access land, but the Peakshole Water beside the last mile is shallow, clean and made for a hot dog.

Under five miles but nearly three hours, because both halves are steep: a rocky gorge climb out of Castleton and a return down the limestone cleft of Winnats Pass. The narrow entrance to Cave Dale is behind Bar Gate in the village; park in the Castleton main car park on Buxton Road, which is pay-and-display and the only sizeable option in the village. The lower gorge is a scramble over water-worn limestone that a small or elderly dog will struggle with, sheep graze the whole plateau and Winnats, and the National Trust asks for short leads all year across its High Peak land, tightened again from March to July for ground-nesting birds.

Five and a bit miles and about three hours along the finest ridge in the Peak, with 340 metres of climbing spread over paved steps and short turf. Start from the Mam Nick car park at the top of the hill, National Trust and pay-and-display, which is full well before ten on any decent weekend; the alternative is to walk up from Castleton and add 200 metres of ascent. The ridge is grazed by sheep from end to end and the Trust asks for short leads all year on its High Peak land, the drop off the north side of Mam Tor and Back Tor is genuinely sheer, and there is no water at all on the ridge, so carry it.

Blue John mine on the Winnats side of Castleton, and the one show cavern in the village that takes dogs underground: well-behaved dogs on a lead are welcome in the visitor area and in the cavern itself. Neighbouring Speedwell and Blue John Cavern publish no such welcome, so this is the one to book. Steep steps and a cool 9C inside, whatever the weather outside.