Duncan gazes, rapt, at Derbyshire scenery near Dovedale.

Dovedale

... is a useful centre for hill walking and it's not hard to climb away from the ice-cream-gobblers and into quiet countryside fairly bristling with a wide variety of stiles. Has anyone written a monograph about stiles? We walked to Milldale. The stiles were of stone and very narrow indeed.

John, surrounded by beer glasses and maps, reminds us of why we are here ...

Some good real ale pubs and good meals too. We visited Smith's Tavern in Ashbourne, which while willing to provide a roast dinner would not sell us roast beef sandwiches. We feel this is short-sighted and we've seen this elsewhere too. So we bought only crisps ....

Black Sheep beer is popular hereabouts and we crash tested it at several places in Derbyshire though it's actually a Yorkshire Dales brew. We enjoyed a meal at the Coach and Horses at Fenny Bentley, where there was good food, obliging service and Timothy Taylor Landlord bitter. We had a good lunch at the Watts Russell Arms in Hopedale and a surprisingly fine evening meal of fresh fish at ... where the owner volunteered to come to our Farm and collect and deliver us in a minibus. Fantastic service!