railway line closed in the mid-1960s and was converted into a track known as Tissington Trail. In a Peak District National Park survey conducted in 1986/87, more than a fifth of visitors said walking was their main reason for visiting. A footpath count on a Sunday in August 1990 recorded 4,421 walkers on the Staffordshire side of the river and 3,597 on the Derbyshire bank. Riverside paths make the valley accessible to walkers. Fishing has grown in popularity as well, due in part to associations with Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler. Some fishing rights are held by the Izaak Walton Hotel (part of the Duke of Rutland's estate at the southern end of Dovedale on the Staffordshire bank, SK143508). Increased popularity has given rise to problems of congestion and erosion. Literary and cultural associations Charles Cotton's Fishing House, the inspiration for Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, stands in the woods by the River Dove. Samuel Johnson, Lord Tennyson, John Ruskin and Lord Byron all praised Dovedale's scenery. The last wrote of Dovedale to the poet Thomas Moore, "I can assure you there are things in Derbyshire as noble as Greece or Switzerland." Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy talk about her travels in Derbyshire, including Dove Dale, after they meet unexpectedly at Pemberley in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Dovedale was featured on the 2005 BBC TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the Midlands. The stepping stones across the river figure prominently in Jorge Grau's 1974 film The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. The area along the river was used in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 version and the BBC's 2006 version of Jane Eyre, and Dovedale also featured in the 2008 film The Other Boleyn Girl. The Ridley Scott film Robin Hood also used Dovedale as a location, and it can be clearly seen in several scenes towards the end of the movie. Dovedale Dash The Dovedale Dash is an annual cross-country race along the banks of the River Dove, along Dovedale, and between the villages of Ilam and Thorpe. First organised in 1953, the race takes place on the first Sunday of November, although previously it was held on the closest Sunday to Guy Fawkes Night. The race has been cancelled on five occasions, most recently in 1998, 2000 and 2004, as a result of bad weather, and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. References