Buxton

Water rises at St Ann's Well at a constant twenty-seven degrees, having fallen as rain on the moors around five thousand years earlier and travelled deep enough to warm; the Romans called the place Aquae Arnemetiae and built baths. The fifth Duke of Devonshire spent Chatsworth's copper-mine money in the 1780s building the Crescent, a curved terrace modelled on Bath, and stables opposite; the stables' central courtyard was roofed in 1881 with a dome of about 44 metres, the widest unsupported dome in the world at the time, and later became a hospital and then part of the university. The Opera House of 1903 is Frank Matcham's, and it hosts an international festival each July. Poole's Cavern beneath the town has been shown to visitors since at least the sixteenth century.

What you actually see

• St Ann's Well - warm spring water, free to fill bottles from, at twenty-seven degrees.
• The Crescent - the Duke's 1780s answer to Bath, restored as a spa hotel.
• The Devonshire Dome - a 44-metre span roofed over an eighteenth-century stable yard.
• The Opera House - a Matcham theatre of 1903 with a July festival.

When to go

April to October; the Buxton International Festival runs in July and fills the town. Buxton is high, at about three hundred metres, so it is noticeably colder and wetter than the surrounding lowland in any season.

Honest expectations

The spa baths are a hotel facility rather than public baths, and much of the historic fabric took decades to restore with work still ongoing. The town is cold and rain is frequent. Poole's Cavern is a steep walk or short drive out of the centre.

Nearby

The Peak District moors surround the town; Bakewell and Chatsworth lie east.