Located at the beginning (or the end!) of the Pennines, the High Peak Estate is an upland property typified by dramatic scenery.
The High Peak Estate is a product of erosion on the underlying Carboniferous Millstone Grit Series, and Limestone to the south of Mam Tor. Unlike many estates associated with large houses, High Peak is a property created by the Trust through acquisition and hence has no overall identity as an estate.
Within the property however, there are associations with the Chatsworth estate and Hardwick Hall which once extended to the Hope Woodlands. The property is not therefore a fixed entity and continues to develop as the Trust protects its existing holdings.
The Estate's habitats and ecosystems are to a large extent determined by the physical characteristics of its geology and topography. However, their nature and character are otherwise entirely the product of human activity.
The constituent features of this landscape have emerged from more than 8,000 years of changing human activity and natural climate change. Its essence lies in how people - residents, visitors and others - have engaged and are continuing to engage, for economic and spiritual reasons, with the relative wilderness of these apparently barren moorlands and the contrasting in-bye landscape.
It is also the story of how the wider human society has, and continues to exploit and leave its mark on the area because of its natural resources and geographical location, according to the prevalent level of technology and cultural associations.
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