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The River Dove (from the old British word dubo meaning dark) rises on the high moorlands of Axe Edge and its clear tumbling waters run southwards for 45 miles to join the River Trent.

Dovedale

For much of its course, the River Dove runs with one bank in Derbyshire and one in Staffordshire. It follows a meandering course, past Longnor and Hartington and through a series of spectacular limestone gorges, Beresford Dale, Wolfscote Dale, Milldale and Dovedale.

The Dove is most of all a walker’s river, with its tantalising curves unfolding to show steep wooded sites and white rocks carved into fantastic towers, caves and spires.

GEOLOGY

Around 350 million years ago, the whole of what is now the Peak District was covered with a shallow tropical sea, with deep lagoons fringed by coral reefs. The fossilised remains of sea creatures and corals make up what we call limestone. This rock forms much of what is now Dove Valley.

Ilam Rock

Over the next 50 million years, the Peak District became part of a vast river delta. The sands and mud washed down by the river former the gritstone and shale rocks which lie under the northern part of the Dove Valley.

Movements in the earth’s crust pushed the rocks upwards and the River Dove was formed, flowing off the moorland. Natural erosion gradually removed the layers of shale and gritstone leaving the limestone dome exposed.

At the end of each of the Ice Ages (during the last 2 million years), vast quantities of melting water, carrying rock debris, cut through the layers of limestone, like a knife through butter, to produce the steep and craggy gorges of the Dales. Water erosion formed caves (such as Dove Holes and Reynard’s Cave) which were left dry as the river cut an even deeper course.

Some of the limestone formed very hard reefs, like those round tropical islands. These were left standing as hills and peaks while the less resistant rocks around were worn down by erosion of wind and water. Reef limestone can be seen in the steep, spear-like Chrome and Parkhouse hills at the northern end of the Dove Valley, Raven Tor, Pickering Tor and the Tissington Spires in the middle and further south, the shapely reef knolls of Bunster Hill and Thorpe Cloud.



HISTORY

Caves in the Dove Valley were used as shelters by hunters during the last Ice Age, about 14,000 years ago. The valley has been used continuously since then. Early farmers, about 4,500 - 5,000 years ago, used caves like Reynard’s Cave to bury their dead. By Roman times, the caves were in use again, probably as shelters for shepherds. Place names like Thorpe reflect a Scandinavian influence in the area before the Norman Conquest - Thorpe is mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086.

Pilsbury Castle was probably built by William the Conqueror and its remains brood above the valley to the north of Hartington today. During Medieval times, pack-horses bringing goods across the country followed a route which crossed Viator’s Bridge at Milldale. It is just wide enough for horses to cross and with low parapets to avoid the panniers.

Enclosure of the land around the beginning of the 19th century led to more intensive farming, particularly sheep farming. From about a century ago, there was a reduction in the intensity of sheep grazing, as dairy cattle became more important with the coming of cheese factories and railway links to the cities.

Dovedale was made famous by Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton who wrote The Compleat Angler in the 17th century. The fishing lodge they used is still standing (but not open to the public).

Many of the weirs across the river were built to increase the feeding area for trout and so improve the fishing. The river also powered several mills.

The conservation value of the Dove Valley was recognised by the National Trust through its acquisition of the South Peak Estate, much of which lies in Dovedale and Wolfscote Dale.