The Peak District is something of an anomaly among the UK’s National Parks.
Nowhere else do you get such a stark geological division as that found between the so-called Dark and White Peak.
To the north, east and west lie the coarse black gritstone of the Dark Peak and to the south, the milky white limestone of the White Peak.
One is evidence of an area once covered by a tropical lagoon, bristling with coral reefs and exotic marine life, the other tells of great mountains to the north – their eroded peaks carried down by great rivers.
Atop the underlying limestone, the silts were deposited. The Dark Peak is what’s left of these former deltas after the ravages of the elements have stripped back the layers to the original limestone.
Like Jekyll and Hyde, what’s left is one entity, but two distinct personalities.