Stretching between the small market town of Bakewell and Buxton Spa, the A5 is one of Britain’s more attractive roads. It follows the course of the River Wye, sandwiched between the downs and meadows of the Derbyshire Dales. Halfway between the two towns is a steep limestone hillside which rises sharply from the road, tumbling down to the Monsal Trail and Miller’s Dale to the north. Its fields are interwoven with the dry-stone walls typical of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, marking out enclosures and lending the whole area a picturesque feel that so endears it to tourists from outlying cities.
From 1992 and 1994, I spent three summers as a biology PhD student in the Peak District National Park. This meadow hillside of Priestcliffe Lees National Nature Reserve was my research site, and some quarter of a century on my bond with the area remains undiminished.
Living With Narwhals 