Hike to The Princess Bride Filming Location in England

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Last summer when I visited the Peak District in England to experience some of the national park’s famous hikes (or “walks”, if you’re English), I chose the Mam Tor Circular because it was on every local “best walks in the Peak District” list I found online. I also follow outdoor enthusiasts from the United Kingdom on social media who often post photos from Mam Tor. What I didn’t realize until a year later, when I saw a clip from the movie The Princess Bride making the rounds online, was that part of this hike was a filming location for one of my favorite movies of all time. I watched the clip with new eyes, thinking, “Hey, that place looks familiar…. Inconceivable!”

The Peak District has served as a filming location for plenty of classic movies. Most people associate the Peak District with Stanage Edge because of a famous scene from Pride and Prejudice, but Cave Dale seems to be less publicized for its use in The Princess Bride.

There are 15 national parks in the United Kingdom, including 10 in England, 3 in Wales, and 2 in Scotland. The Peak District was the first to receive a national park designation in 1951. It’s a hilly area located mostly in Derbyshire, just between Manchester to the west and Sheffield to the east. It’s made up of the limestone “White Peak” in the south and central part of the park, and the moorland gritstone “Dark Peak” to the north.

Mam Tor Cave Dale Circular GPX Tracks

I always download my route onto my GAIA phone navigation app prior to any hike, even if the trail looks pretty straightforward. There are many different routes between Mam Tor, Cave Dale, Castleton, and/or Peveril Castle, but I chose this one because it includes all of them. GPX tracks can be downloaded from that link and then uploaded to whatever navigation app you use.

Other famous Peak District hiking destinations such as Kinder Scout can be connected to the Mam Tor route as well, if you’re up for a very long walk. I did a different loop to Kinder Scout and Jacob’s Ladder another day.

Prefer a guided hike/walk in the Peak District? Check out this list of the top outfitters who offer trips. If you’re more into sightseeing, you can book a Peak District day trip from Manchester.

Getting to the Peak District on Public Transportation

I didn’t have a car during my time in England or Wales, so I was relying entirely on public transportation. I chose to base myself near Sheffield (actually in Old Whittington, Chesterfield) so as to be as close to the Peak District as possible without overpaying for accommodation.

There is a parking lot on Old Mam Tor Road if you do have a car. This parking lot is also a bus stop, called the Blue John Caverns stop. I was able to take the H1 bus line all the way there, but please note this line only operates on certain days and times of the year. You may need to take the 271/272 bus to Castleton and start your walk from there, instead of starting from Mam Tor. Read about other Peak District bus routes.

From Sheffield you can also take the Northern Railway to Edale. For the circular route I chose, starting from Blue John Caverns/Old Mam Tor Road made the most sense. Edale is a bit off my route, but there are so many different ways to do this hike that I’m sure some routes include Edale. You could combine a few of them to hit all your points of interest, choose-your-own-adventure style.

🏨 Planning to stay overnight near the Peak District? Find cute accommodations in Edale, such as the Rambler Inn. Hayfield seems to have more affordable options. There are also budget YHA hostels nearby, and more in Sheffield or Manchester.

Trail Report: Mam Tor and Cave Dale Circular

Mam Tor

If hiking clockwise, immediately upon deboarding the bus at the Blue John Caverns stop it’s time to start your ascent up the hill. The Mam Tor summit is your first big stop on the trail, where it’s obligatory to take a photo with the trig point marker.

Mam Tor is 1696ft (517m) in elevation. It’s not a particularly long or strenuous climb, but I did find myself breathing hard. “Mam Tor” means “Mother Hill”, as frequent landslides from its face have spawned “mini-hills” beneath it.

According to the National Heritage List for England, there are Bronze Age and Iron Age hillforts and bowl barrow burial mounds at Mam Tor, but I wasn’t able to recognize them.

For my non-English brethren: triangulation pillars, or “trig points”, were placed by the Ordnance Survey to aid in the retriangulation of Great Britain project from 1935-1962. The aim was to improve maps of Great Britain. “They are generally located on the highest bit of ground in the area, so that there is a direct line of sight from one to the next.” – Trigpointing UK

The Great Ridge

The next stretch of the trail after Mam Tor was one of my favorite parts. It traces the undulating Great Ridge, providing views far out over Peak District National Park. You’ll scale a few dramatically shaped hills that remind me of the craggy middle portion of Hadrian’s Wall path (a multi-day trek that stretches across the width of England from coast to coast, which I completed in 2019). Looking at the map, I must have traversed Hollins Cross, Back Tor, and Lose Hill as part of the Great Ridge.

Castleton

Next you’ll pass through low farmlands for a gentle walk among sheep as you make your way towards the village of Castleton, where you might stop for lunch, explore Peak Cavern, or visit Peveril Castle. Peveril is one of England’s earliest Norman fortresses, built by Henry II in 1176.

Peveril Castle is open weekends only from 10am-4pm. You don’t need to book your visit in advance, but advance tickets are cheaper. You can book your advance ticket online up to 8:45am on the day you want to visit. Then, subject to availability, there will be walk up tickets available. If you have the English Heritage Pass, Peveril Castle is included in that.

Near Castleton there are actually four caves, including Peak Cavern, Blue John, Treak Cliff, and Speedwell. To make a whole weekend of it, you might decide to stay at a cute B&B in Castleton for a few days and take an underground boat tour of Speedwell Cavern. You won’t be too far from other Peak District National Park points of interest such as the Eyam black plague museum, Little John’s Grave (of Robin Hood fame) in Hathersage, or the town of Bakewell, famous for its Bakewell pudding and Bakewell tart.

The Princess Bride Filming Location: Cave Dale

Shortly after passing through Castleton, you’ll enter Cave Dale, where scenes from The Princess Bride were filmed! Not knowing about the shooting location at the time of my hike, I was still impressed by the strange Dr. Suess-esque landscape. You’ll traverse the bottom of a narrow gorge between cartoonish, grass-covered rocky hills. The main characters rolled down one of these steep hills after Buttercup pushed Westley, believing him to be the Dread Pirate Roberts. He yelled out one of the film’s iconic lines, “as you wish,” as he tumbled to the bottom of Cave Dale’s gorge – thus revealing his true identity.

This was probably my favorite part of the entire loop, although I was upset to find that my camera wasn’t saving my pictures for this half of the hike. It only saved a few from the very entrance of Cave Dale, but the scenery becomes even more spectacular from that point on as you wind your way towards the theoretical Fire Swamp (in reality there is no Fire Swamp on the other side of Cave Dale. The Fire Swamp was a studio scene). Maybe it’s for the best that I don’t spoil it; you should discover Cave Dale for yourself (or – check out my friend Josy’s pictures from this hike)!

After Cave Dale, the rest of the walk is quite straightforward over extensive flatlands back around to the car park. To be honest I became bored during this section of the loop and was ready to be back; there’s not much of a view from here on out.

Other Princess Bride Filming Locations

You can find other The Princess Bride filming locations listed over at IMDB, Screenrant’s “Where The Princess Bride Was Filmed: All Locations,” Almost Ginger’s roundup “The Princess Bride Filming Locations in England & Ireland,” or at the Princess Bride Fandom Wiki. I’ve pulled from those sources to summarize below. The highlighted ones are all in the Peak District!

• Buttercup’s farm was filmed at Bradley Rocks near Birchover, Derbyshire, England.
• Florin City was filmed at Haddon Hall near Bakewell, Derbyshire, England.
• The Cliffs of Insanity were The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland; additional photography was done at Shepperton Studios.
• The fight between Westley and Fezzik was filmed at Robin Hood’s Stride near Birchover, Derbyshire, England.
• The Battle of Wits was filmed at Lathkill Dale near Bakewell, Derbyshire, England.
• Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup running across the moors was filmed at Carl Wark near Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
• Vizzini, Fezzik and Inigo Montoya capture Buttercup while she’s riding through a forest, and load her onto a boat. The “sea” and forest are in Black Park Country Park and the Black Park Lake in Buckinghamshire, England.
• After the Fire Swamp, Buttercup and Westley are captured by Prince Humperdink at Burnham Beeches in Slough, Buckinghamshire, England.
• Inigo Montoya duels Count Rugen to avenge his father in Penhurst Place’s Baron Hall in Kent, which stands in for another part of Florin Castle.

Princess Bride Fandom Wiki // Almost Ginger

As both a hiking enthusiast and a film buff, combining these interests by visiting movie filming locations like Cave Dale is a real treat – even though I didn’t know it at the time! When I posted on Twitter about my realization, two other Peak District National Park hikers commented that they also had no idea about its Princess Bride history when they completed the same walk. Have you ever accidentally traipsed into famous territory without knowing it? Or hiked to any destinations made famous by their inclusion in TV or film? Did they live up to cinematic expectations?

✈️ Coming to England from further afield? Use an Airalo eSIM for affordable international cell data and don’t forget to protect your investment with travel insurance.

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