Driving and dining in Derbyshire

It would be easy to spend the entirety of this post abusing Derbyshire speed enforcement measures, but I'll suffice to say I'm not sure a blanket speed limit across roads, covering the countryside with big yellow plastic signs and worse, gantry mounted average speed cameras on beautiful moorland are the answer. Still.

Why would somewhere that looks like this....(flickr link to source)

I wrote about some of my favourite roads last week and in particular the joy of a memorable drive. Now, I would argue that the fact I'd forgotten about a last minute jaunt from a job on the Wirral to a job the next day in Bakewell in 2002 is forgiveable, but the fact that I had the luck to cross the Cat and Fiddle and carry on down the A6 to Bakewell whilst only encountering one car and no police is nothing short of a miracle. It was made better by my being in the company car (think free tyres and brake pads...). It was made better still that the one car I encountered overtook me shortly before Buxton, knew the road and meant I was able to copy lines and braking and get to my pint in Bakewell even more quickly.

...be made to look like this?

So, it's no small surprise then, that I was looking forward to the jaunt north. Indeed, it was excellent. The Cat and Fiddle is well worth a drive in each direction - just be careful of those ugly little gantry mounted monsters. A circular route that continues up the B4570 and then southeast on the A5004 is good fun and the longcut back to the Cat and Fiddle via Errwood Reservoir, while not quite a road for pushing on, is extremely pretty.


All such things require moments of rest and refuelling. Our grand plan for the weekend was some walking, some driving, some eating and some drinking. As such, I feel duty bound to mention the following:

The Old Sun Inn - where the beer was tasty, the atmosphere was friendly and the staff were excellent.

The Devonshire Arms - really nice place to rest out feet when the rain came down and outstandingly, were showing the Monaco GP when we went in. Shame I was recording it and spent and entire pint trying to block out the commentary. My long suffering wife may never forgive me as the food looked excellent, but I really needed to get out of there!

Simply Thai - at the lower end of Buxton. We had to seat at past nine it was so popular and it's easily the best and most authentic Thai food I've eaten outside of Thailand.

The Lowther Guest House - we spent two night here and were very well looked after. A very warm welcome, off road parking for the car, comfortable and spacious rooms and a more than ample breakfast.

Flickr link to source photo 

Manchester Evening News - Cat and Fiddle Speed Cameras Article