Regarding the locations of the walks. Now I know there are no hard and fast boundaries to the ‘Dark Peak’. It is normally taken to be the northern and north-eastern gritstone and moorland areas. Broadly, giver or take - more or less the part of the national park north of the Hope Valley.

Obviously there are areas which overlap and there is room for discussion. Except when it comes to guide books, it doesn’t matter too much. I have noted that seven of the walks in this book are in areas a lot further south than the area which most people would take as the Dark Peak. In fact some of them are further south than some of the walks in the accompanying ‘White Peak’ guide. These are the walks based on - Baslow, (going through Chatsworth Park - definitely not ‘Dark Peak’ by any standards), Calver Bridge, Eyam, Foolow, Robin Hood (near Baslow). Finally Lineacre Reservoir which is only four miles west of Chesterfield, and similarly Millthorpe, neither of which are in the national park, and a long way from being ‘Dark Peak’. However don’t let that put you off - most of the walks are in the Dark Peak area, and there are many good routes - around for instance, Ladybower Reservoir area, Edale, Castleton, as well as some possibly lesser walked areas such as Bollington, Hadfield and Flash Bar. The walks vary in length from 4 to 11 miles.

They are illustrated with an outline type map, simple but effective. Details are given on how to get to the start by car, bus or rail (if applicable) and a lot of walks can be reached by public transport with a little planning, leaving you free to sample the pub wares in safety. There is a lot of useful and interesting information given about each of the featured pubs. Details are given of its history, any relevant anecdotes, beers served, opening times, extra facilities and a phone number. (It’s best to check with some of the more remote pubs as they don’t always keep to the opening hours in slack periods).

Interspersed with the walk instructions is generous information relevant to the history etc of items passed on the walk, and appropriate black and white photos. It would help clarity though if this was in a different type style or colour, to differentiate it from the instructions. Another slight problem I feel is that the walk directions are not numbered and correlated to numbers on the maps. There is quite a chunk of text and it may be sometimes difficult to tell where you have reached on the map, in relation to the instructions.

This is a useful guide and it is obvious that the authors have chosen the pubs to feature with care. You will enjoy some lovely walks, great pubs and excellent real ale.