Easy Ilam Circular Walk (amazing short Peak District walk through Ilam Park)

Here’s a short, easy and scenic circular walk through Ilam that’s about 1 mile long and takes around 1 hour to complete.

Here’s Your Route:

You start this walk from the Ilam national trust car park located here.

If you’re a national trust member the parking is free, otherwise it’s a pay and display (which only accepts cash so make sure to bring £4.50 in coins, as that was the price last time we visited).

Walk to the left of the main car park (not the additional car park) where you’ll see an information sign.

You’ll follow this path for about 10 yards and then you’ll see a large iron gate on the right.

Open this gate and walk through the field, following the orange arrow signs.

You’ll walk along this path for about 10 minutes, passing a fenced pond on the right, until you reach another fence towards the end of the field where you’ll meet a stone walkway that slopes down to the right.

At the bottom of this path you’ll come to a junction where three paths meet. You need to take a left here, following the river downstream (with the river to your right).

Hint: take a quick detour onto the bridge before you move on, as the views are spectacular.

Follow this path for about 15 minutes. You’ll see some great views of the hills and trees to your right as you walk along.  

Keep walking straight on this path and do not turn off.

After some time you’ll pass an stone structure on your left known as the “battle cross”.

After taking a few moments here, continue on and you’ll arrive at a walled walkway known as “paradise walk”.

You’ll then pass a small cave area on your left which is a great spot for pictures.

Shortly after that you’ll see a low wrought iron fence around a section to your left. Behind it is an area where water bubbles up through the ground known as the “boil hole”. This is one of the main attractions to the area.

After you’ve spent some time at the boil hole you’ll want to continue walking on until you see the following path on the left

Follow this path up to return back to Ilam Hall where you can visit the cafe and bookshop. The car park you started in is at the far side of the building.

Hint: before you go up the path shown in the image above, be sure to check out the bridge to your right that goes over the river manifold (shown below)

Want To Keep Exploring?

If you’ve still got a bit of energy left we’d recommend checking out the church to your right as you go up the hill on your way back to Ilam Hall.

You can also climb up the tower to your left as you walk up the hill, this will take you back to Ilam Hall a bit quicker but there are lots of steps to climb.