Tuesday 6 April 2010

Hayfield Camping and Caravan Club Site, Peak District

Arriving at Hayfield Camping and Caravanning Club site in a motorhome is not for the faint hearted. The lovely village of Hayfield in the High Peak area of the Peak District, has to be painstakingly negotiated, through it's narrow streets, inching past parked cars and gingerly round a hairpin bend, and up a steep narrow hill, before heaving a great sigh that you've done it, then taking a sharp right into the long approach lane to the campsite. For these reasons, this site only permits tents, trailer tents and motorhomes, although I would not want to attempt taking anything longer than our 7 meter motorhome, particularly round said hairpin.

Hayfield C&CC site is a "traditional" site located on a former printworks (donkey's years ago) and is split into two distinctive and different camping fields. It is a fairly basic site, with no hook-ups, and an old but large heated toilet and shower block meticulously cleaned to C&CC standards. There are no laundry facilities as yet, but what's wrong with wearing grubby clothes when you are camping - isn't that half the fun? Tents and small camper vans tend to gravitate to the right hand field, and motorhomes and trailer tents head to the left, although you are can camp in whichever field you prefer.

There are loads of things that are great about this site: the atmosphere, the scenery (located at the foot of Kinder Scout), the dozens of walks direct from the site, the pretty village with its 3 or 4 pubs (of particular note is the The Sportsman Inn ), 2 restaurants, a fish and chip shop and the Sett Valley Trail which is a 4 mile walking/cycling/bridal route to New Mills (although as the friendly staff at the George Hotel said "why would anyone want to go to New Mills! ?" - A good question!) It also has the most wonderful adventure playground area for children, just 5 minutes walk from the site, so you can keep the little ones occupied.

This site is high on our "favourites" list, and we return whenever we can. As it's a basic site, the cost is reasonable, even in high season, and it has lots of character, which, sadly, some Club sites lack. The Wardens are wonderfully friendly and cheerful and go out of their way to be as helpful as possible to make sure a good time is had by all. Definitely an excellent site for tents, cyclists and backpackers as well as motorhomers, and is a brilliant base for all the outdoor activities on offer.

More about the village of Hayfield in the next blog.........


Above image: Hayfield Camping and Caravanning Club Site

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