After leaving Macclesfield on the A537 heading towards the Cat

and Fiddle, Ankers Lane is situated a mile or so inside the Peak District National Park boundary. The intention on this particular morning was to head up into the Derbyshire hills for the sunrise, not that there was any chance of seeing the sun this particular morning when the snow started and the weather closed in.
The Peak District National Park was the first designated National Park in the British Isles in 1951. The bulk of the park lies predominantly in northern Derbyshire but also includes parts of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Greater Manchester, plus South and West Yorkshire.
The northern area of the Park is referred to as the Dark Peak, due to the fact that the underlying limestone is covered by a cap of impervious Millstone Grit. Hence any rainfall leads to saturated ground resulting in sphagnum bogs and black peat.
The White Peak predominantly covers the southern part and lower levels of the Peak District, here the underlying limestone has no capping and it's for this reason that caves and dry river valleys are common to the area. File 8091.