Destination: Romance - Peak District - Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg revels in the beauty of Britain's natural landscape

Written by Nick Clegg and published in The Observer on Tue 16th Feb 2010

Abandoned millstones at Stanage Edge, Peak District National Park, Derbyshire

For me, one of the most romantic places in the world is just 15 minutes from my front door: Stanage Edge, a vast gritstone escarpment in the Peak District National Park. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world for a walk, and my wife Miriam and I head there regularly to do just that. Sometimes we go for long rambles, following the endless line of cliffs; other times we just take in that breathtaking view across the landscape, which never fails to move me. It must be one of the few places in the country where you can gaze for miles and miles and not see a single telephone mast - the views are endless and uninterrupted. If I've had a stressful day, Stanage Edge is the best place to be - hassle just seems to fall away. And even if the weather is foul, it still manages to be beautiful. It gives you romance year round. In winter we'll wrap up in our thick coats and scarfs and trudge through the snow, and in summer we'll find a quiet spot and doze in the sun on a boulder. Walks don't get more romantic than that.