Peak District Cafes

Following on from the favourable response to the thread about the NT cafe in Watendlath, near Derwentwater . . .

For those Peak District visitors amongst you desirous of afternoon tea with homemade cakes, or an all-day breakfast, or big bacon baps in granary buns, here are my three favourite out-of-the-way spots off excellent biking roads:

(1) Smithy cafe in Monyash.
An old coverted blacksmith's smithy on the village green. Superb food including an excellent cooked breakfast.
On the excellent B5055, west of Bakewell.

(2) The Cyclists Cafe at Elton
Very popular with Tour-de-France wannabes and walkers (there's a Youth Hostel in the village). They get very busy on a Sunday and service is slow, but the granary baps are big - one is all you need (especially if it's stuffed with sausage, bacon and egg).
Elton is just off the B5056 south of Bakewell, which is a cracking bit of road and one of my favourites.

(3) Longnor Tea Rooms
A busy little spot in this village made famous by the ITV doctors soap, 'Peak Practice' (filmed in and around the village). Great cakes; worth visiting just to ride the B5053 from Cheadle to Buxton.

(4) Woodbine Cafe, Hope.

Car park opposite, small but very friendly, great cakes.

Animal said:

(4) Woodbine Cafe, Hope.

Car park opposite, small but very friendly, great cakes.

Click to expand...

I know it well!

OK Animal, you've inspired me, plus I've been a bit bored this afternoon, suffering from post-Peak District rideout monday blues. I've updated the .mps file with the Woodbine Cafe and 5 others for you to try out!

(5) The Railway Cafe
Nether Pedley Railway Station Cafe near Grindleford. Chip Buttie paradise and it's open 7 days-a-week every week. It's the old white clapperboard railway station house. And . . . you're on the doorstep of great roads like the B6521 and the B6001. But, best of all, head up over Froggat and Curbar edges and keep going onto Beeley Moor.

(6) Roaches Tea Rooms.
It's a climber's cafe this one in an old farmhouse on the way up to the Roaches and Hen Cloud crags. Park in Upper Hulme, just off the A53 Buxton-Leek road. Don't mess about at the Cat & Fiddle, just tuck into those Staffy-cher oatcakes filled with whatever you like (ooh, all that melted cheese).

(7) Tittesworth Reservoir Visitors Centre.
Whilst you're in the vicinity, there's a nice, more conventional, tea shop at Tittesworth reservoir visitor's centre, near Blackshaw Moor.

(8) Beresford Tea Rooms (Hartington).
The best thing about Beresford Tea Rooms in the old Post Office in Hartington is that it's a non-smoking cafe (you may find that the worst thing). Good breakfasts. The B5054 is a fantastic road, then turn right onto the A5012 all the way down the wooded valley to Cromford - very fast sweeping bends (lots of overbanding though and too many boy-racers on sportsbikes at the weekends).

(9) Polly's Cottage.
There's a good little take-away cafe in Milldale at the top of Dovedale near the old Packhorse Bridge. Beautiful scenery, nice walking down Dovedale, and if you're bored with all those fast B-roads, pootle round the little lanes up-down-and-across the Manifold Valley: lots of little fords like what we crossed on Saturday on the Grindon-Alstonefield road. The cafe's called Polly's Cottage. . . . if you prefer to sit down, join the grockles, and sip your tea through china then NT cafe at Ilam Hall isn't far away.


Oh . . . I want a big wedge of carrot cake, right now!