The London and North-Western railway opened its line between Buxton and Ashbourne in 1899 and closed it in 1966. The line was purchased by the Peak National Park and Derbyshire County Council in 1971 and reopened as the Tissington Trail, for cyclists and walkers.

The southern end of the trail starts just out of Ashbourne, on the Mapledon road, and the northern end is at Pomeroy cottages, just south of Sterndale Moor - the rest of the line to Buxton is still in use as a freight line for the quarries. The track north of Parsley Hay was shared with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which branches off eastwards just south of Parsley Hay station - this is now the High Peak Trail.

Cyclists on the Tissington Trail
The trail makes for a very pleasant day out and is not too strenuous to cycle along, with mostly very gentle gradients. (You might be entitled to expect this on a former railway line, but it is not true of the nearby High Peak Trail!)