Crowds, parking troubles and rubbish...is TikTok to blame for spoiling peace of Mam Tor sunrise?

Oscar Fisher takes a trek up Derbyshire's famous Mam Tor to catch the first rays of a new day but finds he is far from the first there

- Oscar Fisher

IT'S 5.15am on a quiet Wednesday in the heart of a misty Peak District. The roads are empty, the birds aren't singing and all is silent, but one car park is slowly filling up.

That will be the car park beneath Mam Tor's summit. It usually perks up around this time, and you would be lucky to find many free spaces on a weekend, let alone a bank holi-day. Over the years, Mam Tor, which is the second-highest peak in our national park, has somewhat grown in popularity.

Once a place where you would find an ensemble of outdoorsy North Face and Rab-wearing hikers, all fit as a fiddle with their water-proofs and beanie hats, it is now an over-crowded hot-spot prone to parking nightmares and medical incidents.

So, what's the problem, and where did it all go wrong?

This time five years ago, we were all locked away for the foreseeable, with an hour's exercise being the only way to escape the confines of home. So we made use of our local parks and green spaces during what was if my memory serves me correctly a very hot few months.

So when Mr Johnson lifted lockdown restrictions, many of us had accidentally formed a nasty habit - that of healthy living. We were keen to take our newfound love for the outdoors away from the suburbs, and for so for many around these parts, the Peak District was the first point of call.

But while this was all taking place, another virus was brewing. A virus that would grow more powerful than we could ever have imagined - TikTok. The "doomscrolling" app that eats hours of time every day really grew in popularity over lockdown, with parents being forced into dodgy dances and sensory overload numbing the pain of pandemic living.

It is clear TikTok has also discovered the Peak District, with news feeds often featuring endless content detailing the best walks, food and pubs. The Peak District hashtag on the app has more than 112,000 posts, with Derbyshire having just under 60,000 posts.