2016 Finale – Chatsworth

Very cold and frosty when we left MK to make our way north to Derbyshire. Fortunately the M1 wasn’t too bad unlike our trip on the M25 the day before to attend a family get together. We stopped at Trowell Services for a comfort break and managed to find somewhere to park which is not always easy here. Refreshed we set out on the final leg of the journey via Chesterfield and then onto Baslow. We arrived about half an hour after the arrival deadline of 1.00pm. The entrance into the site is quite narrow over a humped back bridge. Once into the courtyard in front of reception the Warden asks you to stay with your vehicle until those in front have checked in so that you can move forward to allow space for units following on. 

The next day we walked up to Chatsworth House. You can normally see the house from the campsite but today we were blanketed in fog and it was not until we were quite close that we could see the ghostly outline of the House. We like to come in December so that we can see the decorations in the house which has a different theme each year, this year it is based on ballet and in particular the Nutcracker. You are encouraged to buy tickets online before your visit but given they cost £20 per person it was not an investment I was willing to make until we were ready to visit. I did phone the House and was told that on a weekday we should be OK. They are also timed, no doubt to smooth the experience, although I am not convinced it makes much difference as we still had a delay on part of the tour.  Perhaps we were lucky but we only had to wait about ten minutes before starting our tour. It’s always nice to have a wander around the House although we were not sure the display was as good as the last one we did a couple of years ago. Unfortunately we no longer get a discount for being Club members, perhaps this is something that could be investigated? 

Tour over we went in search of refreshment and found the coffee shop outside the shop. Refreshed we had a quick look around the grounds but given the fogginess we did not venture far. The House seems to be undergoing some renovations as part of the building was enclosed in scaffolding. Margaret wanted to have a look at the Stable Yard shops which seem to have been improved since our last visit. At just after 2.00pm we started our walk back to the campsite, you could have been mistaken for thinking it was already getting dark such was the dullness of the weather. 

On our second full day at Chatsworth we walked through the Estate into Baslow. En route you pass through a “Kissing Gate” which was made by a local engineering firm to allow pushchairs and wheelchairs easy access to the park. There is not a lot in the way of shops in Baslow but there are several restaurants and a small café overlooking the village. It was here that we stopped for a coffee and a mince pie, well Christmas is only a couple of weeks away!!! Rather than retrace our steps we walked up to the site entrance and returned to the site that way.