We are the East Staffordshire Ramblers. We open the way for everyone in the East Staffordshire area to enjoy the pleasures of walking.
From Ilam Hall we follow the River Manifold through the park and exit to ascend up to Castern Hall, enjoying spectacular views over the Manifold valley. We navigate round Castern Farm, across fields, passing Grange Farm, and on to the charming hamlet of Stanshope. We walk through Hall Dale, a wonderful, quiet place with interesting and varied scenery ranging from relatively flat open pasture at the top to woodland and steep craggy limestone cliffs nearer the bottom where we descend steeply to find the River Dove.
We pass through woods and cross Ilam Bridge into Dovedale itself, surely one of the most beautiful dales in the Peak District. We follow the main path through the dale, passing Lover's Leap and on to the famous stepping stones, which we cross, then making our way across fields to unique Ilam village with it's Swiss style houses and stunning church from where we return to our starting point.
Ilam village in the Peak District National Park lies next to the river Manifold, and has a spacious, attractive appearance, with its unusual swiss chalet style housing. Ilam`s appearance is mainly due to the efforts of a local industrialist Jesse Watts Russell, who rebuilt the village and hall in the 19th century.
The church, which stands in the grounds of the hall, is of Norman origin, and has a distinctive saddle-back tower, but like the hall, much of the church was rebuilt in the 19th century. Some Norman parts remain, and it contains a highly elaborate monument by Chantrey. Inside the church there is a shrine to St Bertram, about whom many legends abound. Bertram whose real name was Bettelin, married an Irish princess. He left his heavily pregnant wife alone in the forests which covered the area at the time to search for a midwife to deliver his child. He returned to find that she had been devoured by wolves. Bertram devoted the rest of his life to being a hermit and is said to have converted the area to Christianity. One legend states that Bertram led the Christian locals to victory in a battle with the invading pagan Danes.
The walk starts from the National Trust P&D car park, Ilam Hall and Park. National Trust members park free.
