Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to Brian Couzins who devised the original route by connecting our list of geo-highlights with a network of established footpaths. We subsequently fine-tuned the route after circumnavigating it twice, but Brian’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the Peak District made the GeoWalk the fine and accessible outing that it is.

We also gratefully acknowledge important contributions from the following people:

Alastair Clark, Christine Drews, Pete Ellis, Anthony Robinson and Simon Melen who walked and reviewed various sections of the route.

Rhodri Thomas, Tom Lewis and Richard Pett from the Peak District National Park Authority for advice relating to footpaths and access.

Christine Arkwright, Paul Guion and Tony Waltham for geological advice.

Mike Brooks, Steve Chadburn and Andrew Whiteley for helping to produce the website along with Philip Benghiat for assistance with the geological maps.

Jill and Maggie, our long-suffering wives, who have never failed to encourage and support our pedestrian efforts.

Illustrations

All the photographs in the website section belong to Martin Whiteley and Albert Benghiat, with the exception of those credited to Julie Harrald, whom we thank enormously for making them available to us. The geological maps and Carboniferous palaeogeographic reconstructions are reproduced here from the British Geological Survey under Permit number CP22/035 BGS

Photographs in the Walk Sections PDFs are attributed individually at the end of each section and they include many images from the Geograph website (https://www.geograph.org.uk/)
Home page image: Ladybower reservoir from Bamford Edge. © Martin Whiteley

About the authors

Albert Benghiat has lived in and around the Peak District for many years while working as a Consultant Oncologist in Derby and Leicester. His interest in geology was sparked by the diversity of the landscape he encountered while training as a junior doctor at various hospitals around the country. In retirement, he studied geology at the University of Leicester and went on to teach geology as an Associate Lecturer at Derby University until moving to Shropshire where he now lives. The idea of a circular geowalk took shape while developing plans for increasing the potential for geotourism in the Peak District.

Martin Whiteley was born in Somerset, at the foot of the Mendip Hills, and discovered as a child that the local rocks were known as Dolomitic Conglomerate, which sounded rather peculiar. Regaling this exciting news to his Primary School teacher he was asked to spell it and find out what it meant! Thus began a lifelong interest in rocks and their relationship with landscapes and people. After studying geology and geography at Sheffield and Exeter universities he worked in the oil and gas industry for 30 years before returning to academia to teach geoscience at Derby University. Martin has broadened his appreciation of landscapes whilst completing many of the challenge walks in Britain and climbing iconic mountains worldwide, so devising this new walk through the best parts of the Peak District has marked a welcome return to his current home area.