Child Friendly Walks in the Peak District

If you are looking for some kid friendly activities near the Peak District, look no further than a nice walking route! Believe it or not the Peak District is incredibly child friendly, with a wide variety of different things for kids to do in the area.

Here are some of our favorite child-friendly walking routes. All of these walks are fairly short and offer plenty of opportunities for your little ones to explore and play.

Monsal Trail

The Monsal Trail is perfect for family walks as it is flat, paved and traffic free. The route is also pram friendly, however parts of the walk can get a bit muddy during wet weather. If you’ve got the bikes in tow, this route also makes an excellent cycle path!

Padley Gorge

Padley Gorge is one of the best kid-friendly walks in the Peak District. This route offers your little ones streams to paddle in, boulders to climb and endless amount of trees to explore! The walk even takes in the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate for a bit of sightseeing. The route is just short of 3km with an ice cream truck at the end!

Tissington Trail

The full Tissington Trail is a whopping 13 miles so we don’t recommend doing the full thing on a family day out. That said, doing a small portion of the route makes a great family day out. The route is traffic free and pushchair friendly. Kids of all ages shouldn’t have any problem here.

Chatsworth Hunting Tower and Aqueduct

The Chatsworth Hunting Tower can be found on the Chatsworth Estate, this 1.9km walk will take you to Sowter Stone Waterfall and then onto the Chatsworth Aqueduct, a sight your kids will surely love.

Along with the aqueduct and Chatsworth House there are plenty of things to see along this walk, especially during the summer months with its bright and colourful vegetation and flowers.

Although it is free to walk on the Chatsworth grounds, you will need to pay £5 for parking. More information on tickets and pricing can be found here.

Blaze Farm Nature Trail

This 1km trail is perfect for toddlers and very young children. Not only is the trail short, but there are plenty of animals like cows, peacocks and donkeys for your kids to pet. The route will take you around the farm, through woodland and even include slides and tractors to play on!

Langsett Reservoir

This walking route isn’t too challenging and offers great sights year round. At 6km, this loop should take you around 2 hours to complete. This is another one which is also great for biking as well.

Stanage Edge Walk

If you’ve got slightly older kids, this 2 mile walk is perfect as there are plenty of climbing and hiding opportunities along the way. That said, you’ll want to keep your kids away from the edges as there are some steep drops. The terrain can also be quite uneven so you’ll want to bring good footwear long on this walk. Nearby is the village of Hathersage, which is full of nice cafes and restaurants.

Dovestone Reservoir

Located on the edge of the Peak District, this 3.7 mile walking route around the Dovestone Reservoir is perfect for kids. The route itself is pretty flat and well paved, it’s also easily extendable if you fancy it!

Cromford Canal

For a nice flat walking route with stunning scenery, you can’t do much better than Cromford canal.

Dovedale Stepping Stones

These stepping stones take you over the River Dove and are one of the highlights of the Peak District. This part of the Peak District can get quite crowded so it’s best to go slightly earlier or later in the day.

This family friendly walk, doesn’t just take you over the Dovedale Stepping Stones, but also around Thorpe Cloud.

The whole walk is just over 3 miles so it should take you around 2-3 hours to complete, however it’s the perfect place to stop and have a picnic.

Wyming Brook

This stunning walking route located close to Sheffield is just under 2 miles and takes you through some very picturesque scenery. The route only takes about an hour so perfect if you have little ones.