I couldn’t find even a half-decent map of the Derbyshire Dales administrative area, via search engines. So I made one. Here it is… extracted from deep inside the local Council’s Local Plan PDF and usefully laid onto a wider map showing its relationship to the Peak District, the Staffordshire Moorlands, and the M6 motorway. As well as nearby Derby there is also a West Coast mainline rail station at Stoke-on-Trent, with fast regular connections to London and Manchester. The local railway station at Uttoxeter will also take you deep into the wilds of the East Midlands and then connect to take you over to the east coast, albeit on a lesser train.

Settlement dot size reflects population size. Green = The Peak District National Park, which the Dales don’t overlap.