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Base Camp Hathersage

Hathersage, Peak District

Our second hostel

We sit on the edge of Hathersage, a Peak District village set beneath the gritstone, with Stanage Edge an hour’s walk from the door and the Hope Valley railway station ten minutes the other way.

Where you’ll stay

Rooms at Base Camp Hathersage

Bed in a shared dorm

Travelling alone or keen to meet people along the way? Our mixed and female-only dorms give you a bunk and clean linen, with the choice of either a shared or an en-suite bathroom depending on the room.

Book a dorm bed

Private room

For groups, couples, or anyone after a quieter night, we have a handful of private rooms that sleep small parties with either en-suite or shared bathroom options.

Book a private room

Under the same roof

What’s here

  • Drying room

    Somewhere warm to hang kit on the days the weather wins.

  • Bike store

    A lockable shed so you can stash the bike knackered and safe.

  • Self-catering kitchen

    A proper kitchen to cook in and a long table to share.

  • Lounge

    Sofas, slow mornings, and strangers who end up friends by Sunday.

  • Fast WiFi

    Quick enough to work from, which is rarer than you’d think out here.

Accessible by public transport

Getting here

By train

The Hope Valley line runs direct between Manchester and Sheffield, with Hathersage station ten minutes on foot from the front door, and London a little over two hours away with a change at Sheffield.

By bus

Regular services from Sheffield and Bakewell stop in the village, and the Hope Valley Explorer runs along the valley to most of the trailheads, so the car can stay at home.

The longest gritstone escarpment in the country runs along the ridge above the village.

On your doorstep

Explore the Peak

Climbing

Stanage Edge

The crag of crags, a three-mile gritstone escarpment a short walk from our door, with everything from beginner cracks to brutal headpoints that have shaped British climbing for a century.

Hiking

Mam Tor and the Great Ridge

The classic Peak District walk, running along the spine of the Great Ridge from Mam Tor to Lose Hill, the kind of half-day route that turns into a long lunch in the pub at the bottom.

Swimming

Hathersage Outdoor Pool

The village runs one of the country’s last open-air heated pools, with rivers and reservoirs nearby for anyone who would rather take it cold and wild.

Walking

Padley Gorge

A short walk through ancient oak woodland following Burbage Brook through gorge and waterfall, easy underfoot and quietly beautiful in any season.

The village

Hathersage

Hathersage sits in the Hope Valley, home to around seventeen hundred people and to Base Camp Hathersage. The name comes from the Old English for “the ridge where goats are kept,” and the village began life as a Saxon settlement on the old route over the moors, growing into a Victorian mill town producing needles and wire on the back of the local gritstone and good water.

Today its high street holds a tight cluster of independent pubs, cafes and outdoor shops, with the Hope Valley railway running through it and walking routes starting straight from the churchyard. The pace is slower than Sheffield, the air is cleaner, and the climbing is on the doorstep.

A good meal nearby

Pub

The Scotsmans Pack

A proper village inn on School Lane, where a pint and a plate round off the day after Stanage.

Breakfast

Cintra’s Tea Rooms

The kind of cooked breakfast that powers a morning on the hill, served on proper china in the heart of the village.

Pizza

The Plough Inn

A short walk down to the Derwent, where the kitchen turns out wood-fired pizza and stone-baked plates by the river.

Deli

Colemans Deli

The village deli for the rest, sandwiches and pastries to stuff in a rucksack on the way to the edge.

A note on Hathersage

The village in three names

Hathersage is a small village with a heavy story, set under the same gritstone that has shaped its trades, its writers and its myths for the last thousand years.

Hathersage (hath-er-sij)

The name comes from the Old English hæfer-sæcg, meaning “the ridge where goats are kept,” recorded in the Domesday Book and barely changed since.

Thornfield Hall

Charlotte Brontë visited Hathersage in 1845 and gave the village to Jane Eyre, with North Lees Hall above the church standing in for Thornfield and the parish for the rest.

Little John’s grave

Local tradition places Robin Hood’s right-hand man in St Michael and All Angels’ churchyard, where the headstone has marked his bones for at least four hundred years.

The Stanage Pioneers

In the early twentieth century a generation of Sheffield climbers turned the edge above the village into the birthplace of modern British rock climbing, a tradition that has not stopped since.

Come and stay

Ready to pack the boots and come north? Check availability, pick your room, and book direct for our best available rate.