People have been learning to fly gliders at Camphill since 1935 – and over the last nearly 90 years, the Club has established itself as one of the UK’s premier gliding sites.

Camphill is a hilltop gliding airfield, flanked by ridges to the west and to the south and formed from the fields of a Derbyshire hill farm that took its name from the iron-age hill fort that used to guard what is now the southern approach to the site.

Originally noted as an excellent ridge soaring site, as gliding developed Camphill became equally well known for thermal soaring and for the wave lift triggered by the Pennine Hills. Today, Camphill is one of the few sites in the country where pilots often experience ridge, thermal and wave soaring during the same flight, with the Club’s height gain record standing at approximately 19,000 feet! We are routinely privileged to share our thermals with Buzzards and Kestrels and are serenaded by Curlews and Swifts between launches.

Converted from the old farm buildings, our listed clubhouse now provides excellent amenities, including a well-stocked bar, a dining room serving breakfast and evening meals most days throughout the season, comfortable and well-appointed guest rooms, a clubroom and broadband wi-fi. Visiting pilots are welcome and our annual Vintage Week routinely attracts magnificent-men-and-women and their wooden flying machines from all four corners of our sceptred isle.

We are an accredited Junior Gliding Centre and pride ourselves in the warmth of the welcome that we offer to new members both young and old. Our 5-day residential gliding courses run throughout the summer season and are an excellent way to accelerate your learning, with a cool drink and an excellent meal to look forward to in our courtyard garden at the end of each long flying day.

At the very heart of the Peak National Park, Camphill is an idyllic gliding site, set in beautiful surroundings and loved by all who fly here.