Photography

Stoney Middleton offers photographers, a unique opportunity to capture a wide range of photogenic subject matter, from the quaint picture postcard backwaters around The Nook, with its collection of listed buildings like the beautiful St Martin’s church.

The dramatic limestone gorge of Stoney Middleton Dale has shaped the village into a unique landscape where houses have been built seemingly one on top of another clinging to outcrops of rock, rocks that draws climbers from far and wide that hang precariously and impossibly to underhanging rock formations, the same rocks that provide safe nesting places to kestrels.

In dramatic contrast a short walk from the village provides some of the nicest views and landscapes of the stunning Peak District National Park. From the highlands, verging on moorland with dramatic limestone outcrops, and wide vistas across to Eyam, Froggatt, Curbar and Stanage Edge, to the valley’s such as Coombs Dale

A superb limestone valley, a Special Area of Conservation extending to 230 acres, encompassing a wide range of nationally important wildlife habitats. It is a spectacular secluded dale that has escaped the ravages of modern agriculture and is a refuge for many of our most threatened species, a poignant reminder of an ancient landscape long since wiped out in many other parts of Britain.

Sheets of colourful rock plants tumble over the stony terraces including a range of plants, cultivated in gardens as alpines. In places woodland, rock and grassland plants intermingle producing a floral spectacle rivalling the alpine meadows of continental Europe. Coombs Dale has more than its fair share of rare plants and animals, providing some of the best and most accessible sites in the Peak to enjoy them, and one of the best butterfly sites in the county is located just below Sallet Hole mine where 18 butterfly species can be seen in a single day.

Stoney Middleton has a training centre offering courses in photography by local Photographer Dan Arkle who has kindly provided some of photographs for this site he can be contacted through his website. (www.danarkle.com)