4 Best Sights in Castleton, Manchester, Liverpool, and the Peak District

This is the area's most exciting cavern by far, with 105 slippery steps leading down to old lead-mine tunnels blasted out by 19th-century miners. Here you transfer to a small boat for the claustrophobic ¼-mile trip through an illuminated access tunnel to the cavern itself. At this point you're 600 feet underground, with views farther down to the so-called Bottomless Pit, a cavern entirely filled with water. An on-site shop sells items made of Blue John, a mineral found nowhere else in the world.

Caves riddle the entire town and the surrounding area, and in this massive example, rope making has been done on a great ropewalk for more than 400 years. You can still see the remains of the 17th-century rope-makers' village. Some trivia to keep kids amused: the cavern was traditionally called the "Devil's Arse" due to the flatulent noise that water makes when draining out of the caves. Events held here include pop-up cinemas, live music concerts, and Christmas carols.

In 1176, Henry II added the square tower to this Norman castle, whose ruins occupy a dramatic crag above the town. The castle has superb views—from here you can still clearly see a curving section of the medieval defensive earthworks in the town center below. Peveril Castle is protected on its west side by a 230-foot-deep gorge formed by a collapsed cave; unsurprisingly, it was considered to be the best-defended castle in England in its day, and was never captured or besieged. However, its relative lack of strategic importance meant that the castle wasn't well maintained, and, in 1609, it was finally abandoned altogether. Park in the town center, from which it's a steep climb up.

Heading northwest to Edale, the most spectacular driving route is over Winnats Pass, through a narrow, boulder-strewn valley. The name means "wind gate," due to the wind-tunnel effect of the peaks on each side. Beyond are the tops of Mam Tor (where there's a lookout point) and the hamlet of Barber Booth, after which you run into Edale.