The river then flows east through the dales of the Wye Valley, along a route roughly followed by the A6 road.

The alkalinity of the Wye provides a rich source of nutrients that leads to an abundance of insects, invertebrates and other wildlife.

This ensures that the trout and grayling grow quickly on a diet of freshwater shrimp, caddisfly (also known as sedge-flies) and mayfly.

[5] The River Wye rises as four small streams on Axe Edge Moor, to the south-west of Buxton.

[7] Within the park, the main channel is joined by another source of the Wye, which flows through the public show cave of Poole's Cavern and emerges on the north side of the B5059 Macclesfield Road.

The 5th Duke of Devonshire employed the architect John Carr to carry out building projects to make Buxton more attractive to visitors.

They join together, and then enter a culvert which starts near Lightwood Avenue, and ends to the south of the freight-only railway line to Tunstead Quarry.

The railway to Tunstead Quarry is sandwiched into the same valley, but takes a somewhat straighter course, crossing the river six times.

Wormhill Springs adds to the flow of the river, and Chee Dale Nature Reserve is on the left bank.

[11] The Monsal Trail avoids the loop, crossing to the south of the river at is start and end, with a tunnel between the two bridges.

[14] The stream which runs down Monk's Dale joins the river on its left bank, and a minor road to Litton Mill shares the valley.

Half way round the loop, the A6 road rejoins the valley, and crosses the river twice, before it reaches Ashford-in-the-Water.

Where the tailrace emerges from beneath the mill yard, it is spanned by a single arched bridge with a attached stepped obelisk.

It was widened in the 19th century, when the upstream side was built in a style to match the original, and is grade I listed.

It is so named because Dorothy Vernon is believed to have used it to escape from the festivities of her sister's wedding to elope with her lover.

[32] At Wormhill there was a flour mill to the south of the former Millers Dale railway station, on the north bank of the river.

The present building was built by the Devonshire Estate, and for many decades was worked by members of the Dakin family, who eventually bought the site in the late 18th century.

The Arkwright Society carried out a survey of the building, and the machinery was removed, to be re-erected at Cromford Corn Mill, before the main structure was demolished in 1973, to make way for a borehole.

The site retains an undershot water wheel, of unknown date, which was fed directly from the river, without the benefit of a mill pond.

There is also a chimney and flue, located higher up on the side of the dale, which is the only one of its type in good condition in the Peak District.

[38] The Black Marble Mill at Ashford-in-the-Water had a long history, as Thomas Accres constructed "an engyne for the sawing of blackstone" in 1595.

A covered leat delivered water to the mill, which was housed in old farm buildings behind Great Batch Hall.

[41] A two-year project to refurbish the building was competed in 2017, and won the Peak District National Park Planning Award for Conservation in 2018.

As part of the renovation, the water turbine was refurbished, enabling the mill to be self-sufficient for electrical power.

[48] Rutland Works was another site where marble was processed, It was close to Bakewell Bridge, and when built in 1847, consisted of two stone buildings, with a water wheel between them.

It is also alkaline, with a good variety of nutrients, providing ideal conditions for invertebrates and insects to flourish.

The Wye is the only known river in England with a population of wild rainbow trout, and is of interest to ecologists and dry-fly fishermen.

Common species of trees that grow beside the river include willow, alder, poplar, oak and ash.

There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish.

Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), which had not previously been included in the assessment.