Derbyshire’s hidden gem bike trail hailed the UK’s best
The Peak District National Park is no stranger to being hailed as the UK’s best or the UK’s most beautiful place and now the park has another feather to add to its cap. The Tissington Trail often plays host to numerous cyclists on any given day and now it’s been confirmed what we already knew, the trail is the best-hidden gem in the country.
That’s according to data from Leisure Lakes Bikes, the UK retailer of bikes, helmets and bike accessories. Using information from TripAdvisor’s Hidden Gem Biking Trails, Leisure Lakes Bikes ranked the top 12 lesser-known cycling routes.
Factoring in the likes to TripAdvisor traveller favourites, traveller ranking, average google searches and Instagram posts, the Tissington Trail came out on top. The trail started out life, like many of the trails in the Peak District National Park, as a railway line, opening in 1899 as part of the London to North West, between Buxton and Ashbourne, the trail closed seventy years later.
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The route was bought by the Peak District National Park in 1971 and turned into the traffic-free trail you see today, popular with walkers and, of course, cyclists. Measuring 13 miles in length, the Tissington Trail begins at Parsley Hay and finishes in the north of Ashbourne.
The trail saw off competition from the likes of the Tarka Trail in North Devon and Kinnoull Hill in Perth, Scotland, but with the breathtaking views of the Derbyshire Dales and the small village of Tissington, it isn’t difficult to see why the trail in the Peak District National Park came out on top.
