YHA Hartington Hall and Hartington Cheese Shop are just two of many must-visit sites in this pretty Peak District market town in the heart of England.
Hartington, at the northern end of Dovedale in the Peak District, still wears the air of a prosperous market town, although it is nearly 800 years since its market charter was granted and many years since a market was last held in its spacious Square.
The classical three-arched facade of the Town Hall, built in 1836, adds to this urban impression, and The Square is ringed by sturdy 18th– and 19th-century stone cottages.
Hartington Cheese Shop
In The Square is the Hartington Cheese Shop, selling blue-veined Stilton cheese from the Hartington Creamery at nearby Pikehall Farm. The creamery is one of a handful in the country licensed to produce Stilton cheese.
YHA Hartington Hall
The most famous visitor to Hartington was probably Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Edward Stuart) on his ill-fated march on London in 1645. He is alleged to have stayed at the lovely Tudor mansion of Hartington Hall, south-east of the village centre, which is now surely one of the most palatial youth hostels in the country.
The hill-top Parish Church of St Giles is one of the most interesting in the Peak, dating mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Charles Cotton Hotel
The Charles Cotton Hotel is a reminder of one of Hartington’s most famous sons, co-author with Izaak Walton of The Compleat Angler, who lived at Beresford Hall, of which only an ornate Fishing Lodge remains in nearby Beresford Dale.
Hartington walk
Hartington is handily placed for an excursion into the upper reaches of what is perhaps the Peak’s most famous dale – Dovedale. Just take the footpath south out of the village through Beresford Dale.