Updated bunkhouse availability

Below is the current weekend availability, please note dates do get taken fast so it’s advised to book now to avoid disappointment. To check weekday dates please get in touch.

Dalehead Bunkhouse http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dark-peak/places-to-stay/

2014

January - June: none

July: 11-13

August - October: none

November: 7-9, 21-23, 28-30

December: 12-14, 19-21

Ilam Bunkhouse http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/white-peak/places-to-stay/

2014

January - March: none

April: 11-13

May: 30-1 June (provisionally booked)

June: 6-8,  

July: 11-13, 18-20,

August: 8-10, 22-25 (bank holiday), 29-31

September: 5-7, 12-14, 19-21

October: 17-19, 24-26

November: 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, 28-30

December: 12-14, 19-21, 24-28

Contact peakdistrict@nationaltrust.org.uk or call 01433 670 368 option 1 for more information and to book

History of Ilam Park

We are always interested to find out more about the history of Ilam Park – in the 1930s the hall was partly demolished, with many pieces of stonework saved from the rubble and now used in the Italian Garden. Look out for the chimney pots now used as planters, and the stone window frames in the balustrade.

We recently came across this wonderful photo in a book, which Derby Local Studies Library have kindly allowed us to reproduce to share with our visitors. There is no date for the photograph, but it is thought to be early 1900s. On a visit to this spot today, taller trees surround the church, these were planted around 110 years ago.

Years ago the water fountain would have provided a soothing sound whilst sitting in the garden and admiring the view out towards Dovedale. Today however, the only water to be heard is the mighty River Manifold, flowing through the park before it meets the River Dove.

#NTreflections   #specialplaces   http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/

Ilam Park is revealed as the setting for winning story

The National Trust has announced the winners of its Spooky Story competition today to celebrate the launch of National Storytelling Week.   

Amelia Allsop (c) Rachel Allsop

Amelia Allsop, aged ten, was selected as the winner of the 10-12 age category with her terrifying tale An Eerie Night at Ilam Park.

The competition, which ran over Halloween last year, was open to children aged 12 and under.  More than 180 children submitted a 500 word story inspired by a visit to one of the National Trust’s places in the Midlands. 

Ilam Park, view of the Hall (c) NT/ John Millar

Amelia’s winning story was inspired by Ilam’s mysterious landscape and features witches, spooky noises and sinister shadows.

Amelia said: “I decided to enter the competition because I don’t really write many stories at home and I thought it would help me with my school work. I chose to base my story at Ilam Park because we had just done the Halloween trail there and I thought it would be quite spooky at night.

Thorpe Cloud (c) NT/ David Slade

“I really enjoyed bringing the story together and thinking of characters and their personalities. When I found out that I’d won the age 10-12 category, I was really surprised and excited.”

The two other Spooky Stories winners were six-year-old Anoushka Sharma with her imaginative tale The Ghost of Brockhampton and nine-year-old Lara Hodgson, whose story The Secret Priest Hole, was set at Coughton Court in Warwickshire.  Lara was also the overall winner of the competition.  All three stories can be found at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/midlands.

Bali Rai, Leicester based children’s author and Spooky Stories judge, said:  “I loved Amelia's story because it was exciting and spooky at once, and the standard of writing for the age group was excellent.  It hangs together perfectly, with a proper structure, and the cliff-hanger ending is quite wonderful.  A thoroughly fantastic effort!”

Further information about Spooky Stories can be found at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/midlands.

Twitter: @NTMidlands  #spookystories or @PeakDistrictNT

Facebook: /NTMidlands or /PeakDistrictNationalTrust or /IlamParkNT

Wild about Birds – A Flying Start!

Our Longshaw and Eastern Moors Explorers ventured over the moors to Shillito Woods to see and have a go at bird ringing this morning as part of the Eastern Moors “Flying Start” event. The RSPB launch their Big Garden Birdwatch next weekend, with this event getting people prepared to help with this important nationwide survey. Details of the Birdwatch can be found at https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch.

The morning gave us a fantastic, hands-on opportunity to get up-close to birds we usually see from a distance. Some of our young Explorers even got the chance to hold and set a bird free once they had been ringed.

Yellow hammer

On the Eastern Moors we saw many birds including: nuthatch, lesser redpoll, goldfinch, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, yellow hammer, blackbird and treecreeper.

The event was a great success, with a turnout of over 50 people coming to experience the art of bird ringing. I even got to hold and release three kinds of birds, an amazing first experience for me! As well as the bird ringing demonstration, there were a number of other activities going on. A bird ID trail through the woods, bird box making for Curbar Woods, pine cone bird feeders for the garden and building recycled binoculars all helped to shape the family event.

Back at Longshaw, another bird ringing session was underway. Once we had finished at the Eastern Moors event, we met with the bird ringers at Longshaw who had found blue tits, great tits, nuthatches, and a greater spotted woodpecker.

Our next Explorers event is on Saturday 22^nd February, which will see us tracking wild animals around Longshaw. Meeting at the Moorland Discovery Centre at 10am. Don’t miss it!

The Longshaw and Eastern Moors Explorers is a family group who meet once a month to experience wildlife and the outdoors. Find out how to join the Explorers by contacting us at Longshaw.Explorers@nationaltrust.org.uk, or call us on 01433 637907.

Sheffield Bird Study Group

Our friends at Sheffield Bird Study Group are launching their Breeding Atlas on 22 January.


SBSG 'New Atlas 2003-08' is being launched on Wednesday 22nd January, 7.30 pm

The eagerly awaited launch of the Group's new Breeding Atlas will take place on Wednesday 22nd January at 7.30 p.m. in the Jessop West Exhibition Space at the University of Sheffield. The venue is on Leavygreave Road, opposite the Henderson's Relish building and 100m W of St George's church.

Professor Tim Birkhead will present the Atlas, with contributions too from David Wood and Richard Hill, the co-editors. This will be followed by an opportunity to obtain a copy (£20) over light refreshments.

For more information: http://www.sbsg.org/ 

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Bunkhouse weekend availability update

Dalehead Bunkhouse http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dark-peak/places-to-stay/

Dalehead's living room with woodburner

January: none

February: none

March: none

April: none

May: none

June: none

July: 11-13

August: 22-25 (bank holiday)

September: none

October: none

November: 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, 28-30

December: 12-14, 19-21,

Ilam Bunkhouse living area

Ilam Bunkhouse http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/white-peak/places-to-stay/

January: none

February: none

March: none

April: 11-13

May: 30-1 June

June: 6-8, 13-15,

July: 11-13, 18-20, 25-27

August: 8-10, 22-25, 29-31

September: 5-7, 12-14, 19-21

October: 17-19, 24-26

November: 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, 28-30

December: 12-14, 19-21, 24-28


For more information or to book please contact Lucy on 01433 670 368 option 1, or email peakdistrict@nationaltrust.org.uk 

Ilam Park's Christmas Festival 2013

The perfect ingredients for festive family fun at Ilam Park have been discovered.

• 71 wooden reindeers made
• 208 giant marshmallows eaten
• 26 fat balls made
• 94 visits to Santa
• 46 biscuits iced and decorated

On Sunday 8^th December the Christmas Festival at Ilam Park attracted lots of families looking for festive fun in the great outdoors. School children from Ilam CofE Primary School sang carols in the stableyard, whilst Jane the chef offered a great winter BBQ to visitors. Coppiced wood from the White Peak estate provided body parts for the wooden reindeer making which kept our staff and volunteers busy for the 6 hour event! Inside the Manifold Tearoom, freshly made biscuits were decorated by children, with icing and lots of sweets – soon to be eaten by their makers. At the fire, children and parents warmed their hands and toasted giant marshmallows, under the supervision of volunteer Steve Maynard.

We don’t want to wish the year away, but we are looking forward to repeating it all in a years time!

See more White Peak events

Go to the Peak District website

The First Christmas Tree

This is a lovely story which we tell our visiting schoolchildren at Christmas time. We thought you might like to share it with your families and friends. Get your listeners involved with the sound effects of the storm and the birds to really bring it to life!

There was once a great forest which grew up the sides of a tall, steep mountain. The trees stopped growing only where the rocky tips of the mountain reached into the clouds.
The forest had grown here for years and years; ever since the oldest people in the village at the bottom of the mountain could remember and probably even before they were born.
Like the villagers, the trees were all of different ages and heights. The largest of them, the great grandparent trees which had been there ever since the forest started to grow, were twice as tall as houses and had trunks so wide that it was impossible for one person to reach all the way around them. Smaller than these and not so old, were the grandparent trees and the parent trees. And finally, no taller than you or me, were the youngest trees of all, the baby trees. 

Although they were of different sizes, all the trees in the forest had something in common. Their branches swept gracefully to the ground and were covered, not in leaves, but in thick green needles which they kept all year round to protect them from the cold. Because of this the trees were known as ‘evergreens’.

One winter, just as snow was beginning to settle on the mountain, weighing down the branches of the trees and making them bow even lower to the ground than usual, the north wind began to blow. The villagers at the foot of the mountain hurried indoors from the biting cold, closed their shutters and drew their chairs closer to their cosy fires.
The bitterly cold wind blew gently at first but steadily gained in strength. In the dark sky, the clouds gathered thicker so that the stars could no longer be seen. The trees in the forest shivered, snow dropping from their branches.
Time passed and, as it did so, the wind blew in stronger and stronger gusts, swirling the snow around and around into great drifts. The trees in the forest shivered and shook, bracing themselves against the wind. As the night wore on, the wind grew stronger and faster, louder and louder until it roared its way all around the mountain. The trees in the forest were pushed this way and that, clinging with their roots to the stony mountain soil below. But the smallest of the trees did not have the strength to withstand the wind’s force and soon they were being ripped from the ground and caught up into the spiral of the
storm.

For days, the storm continued; stronger, faster and angrier than ever. Soon even the parent trees and the grandparent trees were being pulled from the ground and smashed against the mountainside. Then as suddenly as the storm had started, it stopped. Everything became quiet and still. The villagers at the bottom of the mountain crept timidly out of their houses to see what damage had been done to their forest. Up towards the mountain they climbed but when they reached where the forest should have been they found that it was no longer there. In its place was a vast expanse of devastation. Broken trees lay everywhere – it seemed as if every single tree in the forest had been destroyed. 

The villagers stood in silence. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Unexpectedly, out of the silence, they heard the sweet sound of birdsong. Where could it be coming from they wondered? There, on the far side of the mountain, stood one solitary remaining tree, one of the great grandparent trees. The oldest tree in the forest, it still stood strong, having survived the terrible storm. And on its topmost branch perched a beautiful yellow bird singing as if celebrating the new day. As the villagers watched in wonder, more birds appeared on the end of the tree’s branches and these were all of different colours – red, green, orange, pink and blue. All of them were singing so that the air was filled with their beautiful sound.

The villagers were so happy that at least this, the strongest of the trees had survived the storm and protected all the birds of the forest. So every midwinter from that time onwards, they covered the tree with brightly coloured decorations, to remind them of how the tree had given shelter to all the birds in the forest. 

And that is how the first Christmas tree came to be decorated and how it is that, every year, we decorate trees at Christmas.