Around 350 million years ago, the whole of what is now the Peak District was covered with a shallow tropical sea, with deep lagoons fringed by coral reefs. The fossilised remains of sea creatures and corals make up the limestone. the River Dove has carved its way through this massive limestone plateau, creating a deep spectacular gorge, long famous for its rock pinnacles spires, arches and caves, with the well known hills of Thorpe Cloud at the southern end, and Wolfscote Hill at the northern end.  There is evidence that the gorge was inhabited from early prehistoric periods. Surviving from later periods are some Bronze Age barrows, old limekilns and post-medieval farm buildings. The names of the crags, such as Jacob's Ladder and Reynard's Cave, Lion Head Rock and Tissington Spires, originated with Victorian tourists, as did the famous 'Stepping Stones'.

Factoids

• Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton wrote The Complete Angler in the 17th century here

• The word 'Dove' is pre-Saxon 'Dubo' meaning black, referring to the river's dark  passage through the gorge.

• Dovedale was featured on the 2005 TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the Midlands.

• Dovedale was declared a National Nature Reserve on 14th October 2006.
• Thorpe is mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086.

These pictures are courtesy and copyright of Ricky Clark, above left is Viators Bridge which is an ancient Packhorse bridge over the river Dove, the paths along the side the river are empty on this cold January morning, also the river is fairly high and fast flowing as can be seen below

The famous stepping stones weren't being used today as the river was too high, below  are the stepping stones viewed from the top of Thorpe Cloud on the left and on the right descending down Thorpe Cloud, taken on a better day in July!

Reynards Cave shown opposite is a natural feature behind a natural arch high up on the bank of the gorge. To the left is a smaller cave known as Reynard's Kitchen. Excavations in 1960 indicated that it was used as a temporary shelter rather than permanent habitation site during the Neolithic, Roman and Medieval periods, as shown by the scarcity of finds (pottery shards, bronze fibula, worked bone, iron etc.) and lack of a hearth.

Annie Bennigton (1869-1950) lived in Milldale, and every day carried two large baskets packed with mineral waters, sweets and postcards to the foot of Reynards Cave, where she set up her stall. She then fixed a rope up the 50m slope to the cave and charged people a penny a time to pull themselves up! Among the thousands of people she sold postcards to were Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and George Bernard Shaw.

There are numerous caves in the area another two below which were also used as shelters by hunters during the last Ice Age, about 14,000 years ago. Early farmers, about 4,500 - 5,000 years ago, used caves like Reynard's Cave to bury their dead. By Roman times, the caves were in use again, probably as shelters for shepherds. Place names like Thorpe reflect a Scandinavian influence in the area before the Norman Conquest

The southern entrance to Dovedale. is dominated by two hills, Rocky Bunster shown opposite and the conical hill of Thorpe Cloud, shown below. Thorpe Cloud is a reef knoll, best described as an immense pile of calcareous material which accumulated on the bed of warm shallow seas 350 million years ago creating the carboniferous limestone we see today.

The pressure of visitors using the same steep route up to the top of Thorpe Cloud over many years caused considerable wear and tear on the vegetation. Once the vegetation was damaged and the underlying soil exposed to rain, frost and snow the steep route became progressively more uncomfortable to walk on, then unsafe, and the continual erosion resulted in a deep and ugly scar on the hillside, visible for miles. The National Trust in the 1980s established a course of action to repair this route and this work continues to this day.

Various views from the top of Thorpe Cloud, showing the erosion, below right the stepping stones can just be seen in the distance

On the left is Ilam Rock a limestone tower which was left standing, while the less resistant rocks around were worn down by erosion of wind and water. On the right more rock features

On the other side of the valley stand a large group of limestone towers and crags known as the Twelve Apostles, which being formed from the harder reef limestone, have been left sticking up from the side of the valley as the river eroded down.

Not far from the steeping stones a flight of steps carry you up to a limestone promontory known as Lover's Leap. Climbing this hill is the only way to continue your journey north through Dovedale, and the first steps were built after the second world war using Italian prisoners of war.

The name Lover's Leap came about following the story of a young woman, who on hearing that her young man had been killed in the Napoleonic wars, climbed to the top of Lover's Leap and threw herself off. Her billowing skirt caught in branches on her way down, and she was able to scramble to safety. On her return home, she received the news that her boy friend, far from having lost his life in the war, had recently arrived in England, and was returning to see her.