It's a small but picture-perfect village of just 500 residents which is regularly named among the most beautiful places to live and visit in the UK.

But the people who live here, surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery the country has to offer, say they are now dealing with chaotic scenes like people parking wherever they want and even coming leaving human excrement behind.

All you have to do is put the village of Castleton into Google and you'll see reams of articles about the Derbyshire village. Among other things, it's been called the "gem of the Peak District" and the "prettiest place" to see in autumn.

The village is made up of cute stone cottages, a little stream called Peakshole Water runs through its centre and it's surrounded by steep hills and woodlands.

But the village has become part of a strange phenomenon in recent years which has seen crowds descend on it, disrupting the otherwise peaceful lives of the people who live there.

And it's all to do with the popularity of Mam Tor, a 517-metre hill on the outskirts of the village. The National Trust says the summit "will reward you with one of the most dramatic vistas in the Peak District", taking in views over the Edale Valley and the Derwent Moors. And a stone surfaced footpath to the top makes it a lot easier to access.

"I can come down here in the morning, have a cup of coffee and see hundreds of people up on top," Castleton resident Ed Procter told the BBC. "I'm still wiping the sleep from my eye, and we can see them walking up and watching the sunrise."

He has lived in the area since 2012 and says the hill wasn't as popular back then. In fact, it's become so popular that the BBC reports that walkers have caused "significant erosion" in some areas and helicopters are being used to fly up soil for repairs.

There is data to suggest that hiking boomed in popularity during the Covid pandemic, and there is an enormous audience on social media of people devouring videos on beautiful destinations in the UK. But while people doing more exercising and getting outdoors more is a good thing, it is difficult if concentrated so intensely on one area.

In Derbyshire, there is now the Concerned for Castleton group, set up a year ago to gather information and share it with local authorities.

Reported problems include roads being blocked by inconsiderate and illegal parking, vast amounts of litter, and people emptying their campervan toilets into bushes. In January, police were forced to close roads in the area because inconsiderate people left their cars in the way of gritting lorries. Police told people who had planned on visiting the area to find somewhere else to visit and "when you do, please park appropriately".

Ed, who is part of the Concerned for Castleton group, told the BBC: "I've come across human poo before. There's a lot of volunteers in the village that go litter picking every week and they come back with bags full of litter that has just been discarded by random people.

"One of the biggest frustrations I find when I litter pick is people leaving their dog poo bags. I just can't understand that at all."

Though beautiful, Mam Tor isn't an especially stand-out hiking destination, not for seasoned walkers anyway. However, this could be one of the very reasons for its popularity. There is a car park not far from the summit and a paved footpath all the way up, meaning people can walk there from their cars in 15 minutes, including at sunrise, making it popular with social media content creators.

It's also close to big cities like Manchester and Sheffield, and easy to reach.

"Places like Mam Tor are featuring really heavily or prominently on TikTok and Instagram, and that is an advert really for people to come and visit these places," Craig Best, general manager for the National Trust's Peak District portfolio, told the BBC.

"We are seeing huge volumes of people arriving, really early morning, before sunrise, and those high volumes of people are continuing throughout the day into the evening.

"We know now, with evidence, that almost a million people are walking up Mam Tor every year, which is incredible. We've not seen levels of visitors like that ever, or as far as we're aware."

Mountain Rescue data also shows that there were 77 callouts to Mam Tor in 2024, the highest number of anywhere in the Peak District.

"We're seeing big issues around litter, dog waste, food containers just being left throughout the outdoors, which is obviously having a massive impact on nature," Craig told the BBC.

"We are seeing people parking inappropriately... to the extent that the police are now having to close roads, which is clearly having a massive impact on local people."

The excessive visitor numbers are even causing problems for routine waste collections in the village.

Rachel Holloway, who runs Castleton Fish and Chips with her husband, said refuse collectors have been unable to collect one in five of their scheduled collections because inconsiderate parking has blocked their access — which she has then been charged for.