Errwood Hall

Overview

About Errwood Hall

Why stop

Atmospheric woodland ruins with a strong local story
Easy to pair with Goyt Valley walks

Heads up

Muddy, uneven and stepped approach
Limited remains and easy-to-miss wayfinding

Errwood Hall was a substantial Victorian country house, built in the 1830s by Samuel Grimshawe, a wealthy Manchester businessman, and lived in by his family for roughly a century. It was demolished in 1934 in connection with the construction of Fernilee Reservoir, and much of its stone was carried off and reused in the water treatment works below the reservoir. For some years before that, after the death of Mary Gosselin-Grimshawe in 1930, the house was used as a youth hostel. What survives is a quiet clearing in the trees where the outline of a lost house is still readable on the ground.

Parkwolf’s verdictWhy stop here

Map

Where it is

Loading the Peak District map

Full map

SightErrwood Hall53.26985, -1.98924

Keep this map with you offline in the Parkwolf app

Plan your stop

Before you go

Best time to go

Sturdy footwear is worth it. The paths are frequently muddy and uneven, and the steps can be slippery after rain. Visiting earlier in the day generally makes for a calmer wander and gentler light for photographs of the arched walls against the trees.

Spring can be the most rewarding season. The Grimshawes planted rhododendrons around the estate, and visitors often report rhododendron colour and bluebells in the woods, though flowering varies from year to year and is not something to count on.

Getting there from Errwood Hall car park

The Goyt Valley lies about three miles northwest of Buxton and is signposted from the A5004, with car parks at Pym Chair, The Street and Errwood Hall. From the Errwood Hall car park the ruin is a short walk on footpaths, commonly reckoned at only a handful of minutes, following a waymarked woodland route that starts from the car park.

Surfaces are mostly dirt and grass, with several flights of steps
The approach includes an uphill section, gradual in places and steeper in others
Signage exists but can be easy to miss, so check junctions rather than assuming
A few benches along the way and near the remains give somewhere to pause

5 active Peak District alerts

ClosureA54 Cat and Fiddle road closureThe A54 Macclesfield Main Road (Cat and Fiddle) is fully closed to all traffic from 27 July through 30 October 2026 during phase 1 improvement works.Official details
ClosureHooks Carr (Stanage Popular) car park closureHooks Carr (Stanage Popular) car park will be partially or fully closed from 6 October for four weeks.Official details

See all 5 alerts

A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone — Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Peak District Tour Guide

Your drive to Errwood Hall, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Peak District National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

Recorded for this place

Errwood Hall and the Goyt Valley

0:00 / 0:29

“You're approaching Goyt's Lane, an access into the valley toward the ruins of Errwood Hall, farther along.”

Plays as you drive up to Errwood Hall in the Parkwolf Peak District Tour Guide.

More about Errwood Hall

What you will actually seeExpect fragments rather than rooms.

Expect fragments rather than rooms. The remains are largely foundations standing to about ground-floor level, with a few taller sections of dark stone wall pierced by repeated arched openings, set on grass and ringed by dense woodland. There are no restored interiors and nothing to go inside, so the appeal is atmosphere, outline and imagination rather than the experience of touring an intact historic house.

The wider setting is part of the reward. The Goyt Valley landscape was shaped by the Ice Ages and the River Goyt, and the hall was known for its views over the valley.

Honest drawbacksThe remains are limited, so anyone hoping for a mansion will be disappointed.

The remains are limited, so anyone hoping for a mansion will be disappointed. Wayfinding is modest and the ground is rough in places. Plan for the walk as part of the visit rather than a quick roadside stop.

Combining it with a walkThe ruin sits well inside a longer outing in the Goyt Valley, and many visitors extend it into…

The ruin sits well inside a longer outing in the Goyt Valley, and many visitors extend it into a loop that also takes in the Grimshawe family burial ground to the west and the small shrine north of the house. Those are separate sites with their own character, not part of the hall remains, but they add depth to the same family story.

Wildlife

Wildlife in Peak District

All Peak District wildlife maps

248 sightingsRed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

36 sightingsRed FoxMost seen around 6 AMSighting map

15 sightingsEurasian OtterMost seen around 7 PMSighting map

51 sightingsPeregrine FalconMost seen around 6 PMSighting map

47 sightingsEuropean Fallow DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map

54 sightingsWestern Roe DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Peak District. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.