River Bradford at Youlgreave (Bradford Dale)

The only formal car park is Moor Lane car park on the west side of Youlgreave. It is a small car park with 30 spaces and card-only pay-and-display or the RingGo app, with charges of £1.50 up to 1 hour, £2.50 up to 2 hours, £4.00 up to 4 hours and £4.75 all day; Blue Badge holders park free and charges apply 10am to 6pm. There are no toilets at Moor Lane. Note the car park is card-only, so do not rely on coins.

From Moor Lane it is roughly a 15-minute walk across field paths and down into the dale to reach the pool. Many visitors instead park on the roadside in the village near Holywell Lane / Bradford Road for a shorter five-to-seven-minute descent, but village parking is very limited, the lanes are narrow, and residents and the National Park ask visitors not to block verges, gateways or passing places. Arrive early or late on warm summer days when the village fills quickly. Youlgreave is reached via the B5056 off the A6, about a ten-minute drive south of Bakewell.

• Best months: June to September, when the air is warm enough to enjoy a cold dip and the shallow water is at its most pleasant.
• Crowds: it gets very crowded on sunny days and does not have the infrastructure to support it; busiest on hot weekends and school holidays, quietest early morning, late evening and midweek. Out of high summer it is usually crowd-free.
• Water level: highly seasonal. In dry spells and drought the limestone river can run low or dry, and the pool can be drained when the Haddon Estate opens the sluice gates for management or maintenance, so visitors have repeatedly found little or no water. After heavy rain the flow rises, speeds up and clouds.
• Winter: cold-water dipping is possible for those equipped for it, but the water is cold year-round and there are no facilities.
• Seasonal facility or dog rules: none. There is no lifeguard at any time and the dog-on-lead request is year-round. Village toilet opening may be seasonal, verify locally.

Swimming here is long-established and long-tolerated informal use on privately owned land, rather than a statutory right. The river and its dams are owned and managed by the Haddon Estate, whose fisheries team maintains the weirs, walls and gates in Bradford Dale. Public access along the dale is by a public footpath, so reaching the water on foot is lawful.

There is no byelaw or Public Spaces Protection Order banning swimming at the pool, and the site is openly promoted with voluntary code-of-conduct signs asking visitors to use the dedicated area sensibly. One important clarification: the River Bradford at Youlgreave is not an SSSI. The nearby River Lathkill and Lathkill Dale are an SSSI and a National Nature Reserve where swimming and paddling are not permitted, and that neighbouring designation is the likely source of confusion.

Not a designated bathing water. The River Bradford at Youlgreave is not monitored by the Environment Agency for bathing-water bacteria, so there is no Excellent/Good/Sufficient/Poor bathing classification or Swimfo profile.

For wider river health, the Environment Agency assessed the Derbyshire Bradford catchment as "moderate" for river health in 2019, down from "good" in 2016, and judged its chemical quality as a "fail" in 2019, driven largely by polybrominated diphenyl ethers and lead compounds. The metals reflect the area's lead-mining geology rather than obvious sewage pollution, but check the Environment Agency data directly if this matters to you.

Sewage and runoff:

• The water company for the area is Severn Trent Water. No monitored sewage overflow was confirmed discharging directly into the River Bradford at the swim spot on the maps reviewed, but this was not fully verified during research, so check Severn Trent's live discharge map and the Rivers Trust or Surfers Against Sewage maps before you go.
• Rain washes muck off the fields into rivers, and agricultural runoff is plausible given grazing meadows in the dale. Because the Bradford is spring-fed through limestone, it usually runs clear despite that geology.

Practical rule: avoid swimming for about 48 hours after heavy rain. There was no history of blue-green algae for this flowing reach in the material reviewed, but blue-green algae is generally a still-water risk. Any citizen-science testing specific to the Bradford pool is unknown, verify locally.

Yes, this is one of the most family-friendly river swims in the Peak District, with the usual wild-water caveats. The carved pool is shallow, calm and stone-walled, with a ledge along one side where children can stand and climb out easily, and shallower paddling for toddlers just upstream and downstream. There is a grassy meadow beside the pool for picnics.

There is no lifeguard and there never has been, so children must be supervised at all times. There are no toilets at the water and no baby-changing on site, and the water is cold year-round. The bed is limestone and silt with some sharp stones, so water shoes help. The village has pubs and a YHA café for food, and a playground/recreation ground along Alport Lane. Important seasonal caveat: the pool is sometimes drained low or dry, so check before promising children a swim.

Policy: allowed but restricted by a voluntary code, keep dogs on a lead. The posted code of conduct asks visitors to keep dogs on leads, and walk guides note dogs should be on a lead around grazing livestock in the meadows. There is no PSPO dog ban found for this spot.

Water hazards for dogs are the same weirs, sluices and cold water as for people. There are no dedicated dog rinse-off facilities. Please be considerate: reviewers have complained of dog mess around the pool, which is mainly used by families paddling. Dog-friendly refreshment is available at village pubs, but check current pub policies before you go.

Largely not accessible. The approach from the village involves a downhill path, a gate and on some routes steps, and the riverbank is uneven grass and stone; there is no step-free surfaced route to the water and no ramp or slipway. Blue Badge holders park free at Moor Lane car park, but from there it is a field-path walk of around 15 minutes. There are no Changing Places or accessible toilets at the spot, and entry to the pool is over a stone ledge. If step-free access is essential, this spot will not suit. Unknown, verify locally whether any approach is genuinely manageable for limited mobility.

• At the water: none. No toilets, no changing, no showers or rinse taps, no drinking water, no bins, and no lifebuoy or throwline reported. Take all litter home.
• Toilets: public toilets in Youlgreave, off Holywell Lane and at Coldwell End, about a five-to-ten-minute walk. Seasonal opening, verify locally.
• Food and drink: three pubs in the village, the Farmyard Inn, the George Hotel and the Bull's Head, plus the YHA Youlgreave café. Note the Farmyard Inn's food service has been intermittent during recent management changes, verify current opening times.
• Defibrillators: two in the village, on the exterior of the Farmyard Inn and on the wall of Youlgrave Garage.
• Phone signal: unknown, verify locally; likely patchy in the dale bottom.
• Nearest A&E or minor injuries: unknown, verify locally; the nearest emergency departments are some distance away, for example Chesterfield Royal Hospital and the Royal Derby Hospital, so know your access point and grid reference in an emergency.

There is no dedicated wild-swimming club found for the Bradford Dale pool; the spot is used mainly by families, visitors and casual dippers and appears on outdoor-swimming listing sites. The Bradford River Action Group, formed by local residents, focuses on the river's flow and conservation rather than organised swimming. Unknown, verify locally whether there are any organised swim meets or a local Facebook swim group specific to Youlgreave.