Scouting in the Staffordshire Peak District

 Today I'm not going far away but in some ways it may seem more like it because Staffordshire and especially North Staffordshire is an area of contrasts from the heavily urbanized core which I'm in the edge of to areas of quite unspoilt countryside.

For the adventous child in this city region in Scouting or not, we are not so far from great places to explore and so we have two scout camps of which one was written about sometime back.

It is under appreciated that we have as one gets beyond Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands that actually a good portion of the Peak District National Park does fall in this county as much as I like our neighbours in Derbyshire.

This area was very much the playground in my back yard growing up.

Gradbach Scouting Centre is to be found where our county intersects with Derbyshire and Cheshire placing it well within the reach of youngsters in the North West Midlands with its core being a traditional stone farmhouse.

It lends itself to traditional under the stars scout camps while having more permanent structures for the base camp

There are a good many trails you can go hiking or cycling around here while getting a break from the noise and activity of our busy urban centres.