Ilam Park — Attraction in Staffordshire Moorlands

Visited on Christmas day 2019, when I had my holiday in the area. I thought on Christmas at least the beauty spots were open for nice walks. Well, even to get there was lovely to drive through a valley with sheep grazing around. They have a good size car park and in the manor a youth hotel - or at least that time it definitely worked like that. Also café/toilet available in the side of the house. The ground has a lovely view and a few paths to start our walk. I bet I missed the longer ones, but the weather was wet and muddy, and I did not find proper estate map anywhere. But yet I spent there 3-4 hours to walk around and enjoyed the fresh air. I wanted to walked down to the stepping stones, but on half way I had to turn back as it was already half past 3 pm and began to get dark, so felt better to head back to the car park. But in summertime it can be another nice walk to get there, have a look, enjoy and then back. Also we can drive there within a few minutes. But because winter has very short daylight, hard to squeeze 2 spots in one day. But the area is beautiful, and definitely...

Visited ilam hall today, parked in the national trust car park, free parking for members (they say its small but there is overflow car parking seemed pretty big to me, maybe in high season it may get full). Took a quick walk around the grounds, down to the manifold River, onto the bridge and back across to the church. Wandered through ilam village and took the public footpath over the hills through sheep and cattle fields. Very very muddy you need good walking boots! We made it to the stepping stones, quiet this time of the year during the week and managed to get over them even with quite a high water level. Found a picnic spot (on the ground definitely need a water proof mat!) Then we walked back through the car park at stepping stones/dovedale and walked back to ilam village and the hall national trust car park via the road, relatively quiet road and made it fine with two young kids and a dog. All round lovely trip, amazing views and great fun getting muddy!! There was a takeaway cafe open at ilam hall if you want refreshments. We...

Dovedale National Nature Reserve.

A beautiful place to go for a walk and a picnic. The scenery and the beauty of this place is hands down 5 stars.

What lets it down for me and irony is the amount of rubbish that was on the ground and plastic bottles that floated in the lake with the wildlife. It's disgusting and really appalling that people are just that careless, also that the issue hasn't been dealt with quick enough. There were so many families yesterday that I can see why this happens. This is probably why I generally don't like people... because they ruin everything.

National Trust aren't 100% at fault but they do have a responsibility in the up keep and maintenance. I mean that is part of what I'm paying a membership is for, isn't it?

The WC's were disgusting. The cleanliness was out the window. For some reason I could push the entry barrier freely as I entered the men's but for some reason my wife had to pay in order to pass the barrier in the women's.

Apart from that... it's a...