Heights of Abraham

The hill was named in the eighteenth century after the Plains of Abraham at Quebec, because the climb from the gorge was thought to resemble the ascent Wolfe's troops made in 1759, and it was laid out as a pleasure ground for visitors to the Matlock Bath spa. The Great Masson and Great Rutland caverns beneath it are former lead mines, worked from at least the seventeenth century and open on guided tours, with Rutland showing the tight hand-cut passages the miners used. In 1984 a cable car was built from the valley floor, the first of its kind in Britain, climbing about 170 metres over the Derwent gorge in a few minutes and giving the view down the wooded ravine that made Matlock Bath a resort in the first place.

What you actually see

• The cable car - a 170-metre lift over the Derwent gorge, built in 1984.
• The lead mines - Masson and Rutland caverns on underground tours.
• The Georgian grounds - a hilltop pleasure park laid out for spa visitors.
• The gorge view - the wooded Derwent ravine from the Victoria Prospect Tower.

When to go

April to October for full operation; the site closes for parts of winter and the cable car does not run in high wind, in which case access is on foot up a steep path. Autumn colour in the gorge is the best time.

Honest expectations

The cable car stops in strong wind with no warning and the walk up is a hard twenty-five minutes. Cavern tours involve steps and low passages. The ticket covers everything but is expensive if the caverns are not wanted, and Matlock Bath itself is an amusement-arcade strip.

Nearby

Matlock Bath is directly below; Cromford Mills and the Derwent Valley Mills sites lie south.