10 EASY Peak District Walks! Short, Flat, Beginner & Child Friendly!

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The Peak District is full of footpaths and walking is one of the top things to do in Peak District, but don’t worry, you don’t have to be a pro hiker and super fit to enjoy walking in the Peak District because there are easy Peak District walks to do!

The Peak District is one of England’s National parks well located in the Mid to North of England with Sheffield, Manchester, Stoke on Trent, Huddersfield, Derby and Nottingham surrounding it. There are many activities to do in the Peak District and many of these activities revolve around seeing the famous Peak District Caves and walking the hills, reservoirs and rivers of the Peak District.

Walking in the Peak District is by far the best way to experience this area of natural beauty but you don’t need to be climbing steep hills to enjoy and appreciate it.

In this Peak District travel blog, I’m going to give you a variety of easy Peak District walks which include Peak District circular walks, flat walks in the Peak District and reservoir walks in the Peak District perfect if you’re looking for Peak District family walks with small children or a pushchair, or you want to get into walking without exterting yourself with steep hills and long distances.

Easy Walks Peak District

This flat Peak District walk took us 2 hours but we let the kids explore on the way so we could have done it in 1 – 1.5 hours if we’d gone quicker.

Dovstone Reservoir offers an easy and flat circular walk on gravel around the reservoir. Dovestone Car Park, although a bit small and tight, offers parking right by the reservoir and toilets.

I know that having toilets nearby is one of the things that creates an ‘easy walk’ with or without children!

What’s great about Dovestone Reservoir Walk is that you can easily make it a bit harder and walk further once you get there if you fancy it. You can extend your flat walk by walking around Yeoman Hay Reservoir which is literally right next to Dovestone Reservoir.

For part of the way, you can take the forest route instead of the reservoir pathway giving you a bit of an incline and different scenery.

The EASIEST and shortest way is indeed very easy and short. Park on Leek Road (google maps location here) right where the footpath leading to Thor’s Cave meets the road (you can easily see the footpath on Google Maps after searching for Thor’s Cave)then, it’s a 0.5-mile walk along a flat footpath plus a small uphill walk through the forest to take you to the base of Thor’s Cave.

I went at sunset on a weeknight and no one else was there so I recommend going super early or later if you can.

This is one of the best easy walks for children in the Peak District because the name is cool and the cave is really fun and unique, it’s bound to keep them interested!

Bamford Edge is one of the short walks in the Peak District because you can park along New Road (google maps link here), take the footpath straight away up through the field to the top of the ridge and then it’s a short walk to the actual ‘Edge’.

Bamford Edge provides amazing views over Ladybower Dam and Reservoir and is a cool place to walk on relatively flat ground around even once you have got your Instagram photo on the edge before heading back down to the car.

You can also easily extend your walk and visit Stanage Edge too or do the Three Edges Walk although this does take a few hours and is not considered an easy Peak District walk.

Although the easiest walk you can do will be around the Italian Gardens and Woodland at Ilam Park, it’s worth going a bit further and visiting the famous Dovedale Stepping Stones from Ilam Park.

Here is a step-by-step guide provided by the National Trust, it is an easy route to follow as it follows one main path from the National Trust site to the Stepping Stones and back the same way taking about 30 minutes each way

Note that this route is not wheelchair-accessible or pushchair friendly as it involves fields and some paths that can get muddy.

To make this walk even easier and short, you can do purely the Dovedale Stepping Stones Walk starting at Dovedale Car Park and then it’s a 10-minute walk along the river to the stepping stones.

Again, like most of these easy Peak District walks the walk can be extended into a circular walk covering 6 miles like this but you can do it much easier by parking at Gradbach Car Park, walking along the road, through Gradbach where you’ll find a cafe and bathrooms and take the footpath all the way to Lud’s Church and back the same way.

Lud’s Church is not an actual Church by the way, it’s an 18-metre-deep chasm created in the area’s gritstone caused by a giant landslip and is called a Church because myths say people did use it to worship in secret.

This is a great place for kids to play and explore and is definitely one of the best walks for children in the Peak District because of this!

Expect it to take you 30 minutes up and down plus time exploring at the top. You will need to walk through various terrains, mainly the forest after passing Gradbach which gets very muddy so appropriate footwear is needed.

If you want to extend the walk without adding too much on, follow the footpath to the Hanging Stone afterwards.

For parking, I suggest heading to The Roaches Tearoom and as you get closer you’ll likely see lots of cars parked on the verge and you can park on here too. Note, you can’t actually park inside the tearooms to do this walk, you need to park on the road in the designated parking verges.

This makes it one of the great easy walks in the Peak District because you take the nearest footpath which is clearly signed off the road and head uphill to the ridge.

This walk is not easy in terms of it being wheelchair or pushchair friendly as there are rocks to navigate but the length isn’t far and you can really determine how far you walk yourself making it one of the best easy walks in the Peak District.

We visited Poole’s Cavern first, taking their cave tour which is one of the best things to do in the Peak District and I really recommend teaming it with this walk. I recommend it as one of the great days out with kids near Manchester!

Go Ape Buxton is also located here so if you wanted to add in one of the good Peak District activities as well as a walk you could take on the Tree Tops Challenge at Go Ape!

From the Pooles Cavern car park, you follow the signs along a well-maintained woodland footpath up a bit of a hill before reaching the meadow at the top.

From here, it is a 5 minute walk or so through the meadow to Soloman’s Temple which you can then climb to see an amazing view over Buxton and the surrounding area.

It was a lovely day when we went so we took a picnic and my mum decided to wait in the meadow rather than walk to the temple so this is an option for you too if you have members that can’t walk as far in your group.

The best thing is that walking down is much easier and the kids loved exploring the woodland and all its smaller paths as we walked down the main path.

Another reason why I’ve classed this as one of the easier walks in the Peak District is that Pooles Cavern offers toilets and a cafe which often helps people find walks easier, especially with kids.

You can also do this walk from Grin Low Car Park which is a 10-minute walk to Soloman’s Temple so even more accessible and quicker.

What makes this reservoir walk different from other reservoir walks in the Peak District is that the path takes you away from the reservoir halfway through and through the village of Combs which is a nice way to see a small village and you can stop at the Beehive Inn for some lunch or a drink on the walk making it an even easier walk in the Peak District!

Although there are many easy Padley Gorge walking routes, I recommend parking in the National Trust Longshaw Estate, this will mean you’ll find designated parking and have facilities such as a cafe and toilets nearby, really helpful if you are doing this walk with young children.

As I said, there are many walks to walk Padley Gorge but I like the easy circular Padley Gorge walk that the National Trust recommend as it is all signposted with pink arrows from the cafe in Longshaw Estate.

From the cafe you’ll visit a few places first such as Longshaw Pond, Granby Wood, and Burbage Brook and then reach Padley Gorge where you can continue along the river upstream back to the entrance of the Longshaw Estate or spend time around Padley Gorge playing, maybe having a swim as it’s one of the Peak District wild swimming spots and finding wildlife.

Children will love this walk as the scenery keeps changing and they can play on the banks of the river getting muddy and messy!

For the Mam Tor easy walk, park at the National Trust Dark Peak car park along the road Rushup Edge, using this link because the car park is just called ‘car park’ on Google Maps which isn’t easy to find!

The easy walking route for Mam Tor follows 2 separate footpaths leading out of the car park that take you 0.4 miles to the top of Mam Tor.

Now, this walk isn’t super easy as there is quite an incline, some big steps and even at my fittest it leaves me out of breath, but it’s on this list of easy Peak District walks because of how short it is!

I did a Mam Tor hike with a group of people last year, many of whom hadn’t hiked before and many did struggle with the hill but they kept stopping, taking breathers and all managed it because it really isn’t long despite the incline!

The great thing about doing this easy Mam Tor walk is once you are at the top, the hard work is done! From here, you can walk back down if you were only looking for a quick Peak District walk, or you can continue along the ridge as far as you want before turning back on yourself. The ridge for the most part is pretty flat and you can’t get lost as it’s one footpath and you can see the footpath stretching ahead of you along the ridge.

Or, you can follow this Mam Tor Circular Walk by the National Trust.

I hope you enjoyed these easy Peak District walks and you’ve found a walk for you!

• For more of my posts see:
• 10 Easy Lake District Walks! Beginner, Short, Flat and Circular Walks!
• How To Do Pendle Hill Walk in Ribble Valley! Easy & Hard Routes!
• 23+ Fun Family Days Out NEAR Manchester!
• 22+ GREAT Day Trips From Manchester!
• PERFECT Weekend in Liverpool Guide!