We joined BCA because we loved to be involved in our local community. We like walking and discovering what's new in our town and woodlands. We love the dramatic change of season and use the surrounding area as our inspiration for creative projects.
We would like to see live events and workshops in the woodlands over the next few years, with music, food and celebration being the theme. Interested to know how you would use the woodlands and Cafe @ The cavern for your next event?
Green Hellebore
Send in your dog walking pictures and we'll display them in our gallery!
Contact BCA to arrange for your images to feature in our gallery blogs
Talk from Buxton Mountain Rescue
BCA want to encourage every explorer to visit the woodland. We discovered the world of Geo Caching! Want to know more??? Take a look at the film.
Walking through Buxton Country Park
Extensive woodland to enjoy including SSSI flower glades, former kiln sites and various routes up to access landmark Solomon’s Temple. For the brave, team-building or just family fun there is Go-Ape tree-top adventure.
Buxton’s oldest woodland and the popular Victorian Swiss Walks. This wood features a level path at the bottom of the wood so access is possible for wheelchairs to this area of the wood. A hillside route up to Corbar Cross and fabulous views over the town. Hosts show of beautiful bluebells in springtime.
Features: stream and stepping stones, pond, ford former brickyard. Adjacent to the Cavendish golf course.
A small wooded area adjacent to the lower end of Harpur Hill Road. Note only the northern part of wood is owned by BCA, the southern portion belongs to DCC. Access to the wood is via: a gate at the bottom of Harpur Hill road, a footpath off Trent Avenue next to Harpur Hill School, or from Fern Way.
The main feature of the Wood is stream, though usually dry in the summer months and a wooden bridge over the stream. There is also a small old quarry on the east side of the wood and a badger sett.
Small haven in residential area, access from 3 corners.
A tiny wood surrounded by farmland accessible only by footpath either from Burbage or through Plex Farm off Bishop’s Lane.
Deep steep sided limestone tree lined gorge, with a river running through.
Access from the sharp bend on Dukes drive, short path to cliff edge to view of Lovers Leap on the opposite side of the gorge.
View of the A6, river Wye and railway goods line.
Keep away from the cliff edges please.
The flora and fauna of Corbar cannot compete with the rich variety you can find in Grin Low Wood, especially the limestone loving flowers in the glades there: Corbar is no SSSI, but it has its own beauties. In May the bluebells in the far western part of the wood are a sight to behold, and the eroded old quarries below them provide dramatic contours – and challenges to local children to scramble up or slide down. There are some splendid veteran beeches, ancient yews and a few gnarled oaks. If you haven’t explored Corbar Wood yet, do spare a few hours to get to know it: you will find it very rewarding and good for your health. Recent research has shown that regular walking through woodland reduces stress chemicals in the body and increases cells in the immune system that fight viruses and tumours.
Look at any 19th century print of the Crescent, such as the fine display in No. 6 Café or those frequently shown in the Art Gallery, and you will see a massively enlarged Corbar Hill in the background covered on its western side with trees. Corbar Wood, 54 acres – just over half the area of Grin Low Wood, is our only semi-natural ancient woodland, possessing some of the signs of very old woodland: a magnificent area of bluebells which grow best in woodland and take centuries to spread; a vestigial and possibly mediaeval boundary ditch to protect the valuable coppiced trees; and the remains of a white coal pit, dug to provide super-dried coppice branches which could create the higher temperatures than charcoal which were needed for smelting lead.
In the early Victorian period when Buxton was being developed by the 6th Duke of Devonshire as a spa resort for the increasingly prosperous and numerous middle classes, Corbar Wood was developed as a visitor attraction by laying out broad walks, rustic bridges, seats, shelters, and viewpoints, probably supervised by Sir Joseph Paxton, the Duke’s head gardener, engineer and architect. Nothing remains of the pretty rustic bridges and summer houses, and to get the views you have to walk higher up to Corbar Cross, erected by Buxton Catholics in 1950 to mark the Jubilee Year. Considering the popularity of the ‘Swiss Walks’ and the Victorian fascination with the developing art of photography, remarkably few photographs of the Corbar Walks, bridges and arbours survive among the large collection of historic photographs in the Buxton Art Gallery and Museum.
The layout of the Victorian walks survives but over many decades their surfaces have been badly eroded and there is poor natural drainage as the rock beneath is impermeable gritstone. The annual autumnal leaf litter has built up and after rain and snow creates a potentially hazardous quagmire which walkers naturally avoid and so broaden the paths and extend the slippery areas. Over the last few years BCA has made a determined effort, mainly by Mike Monaghan and Alan Walker, and with valuable advice from Phil Beh-Mycock, to rebuild the surfaces of at least the public rights of way (also on the ‘Ring of Trees’ guided walk), applying to local quarries (Tarmac, Lhoist and Omya) for many tons of aggregate and to High Peak Borough Council for grants to employ a skilled professional path builder, Martin Wragg (Oak Tree Landscapes). After a few seasons the surface of the paths blends in with the woodland floor and has certainly made walking through this beautiful wood a much more agreeable experience. Some repaired paths are now even accessible to wheelchair users and buggies. We are very grateful to all who have made these improvements possible and we hope to repair the very slippery paths around the western perimeter and the top when we can solve the logistic problem of getting about 100 tons of stone up quite a steep hill.
