The Derbyshire Dales / Peak District

Derbyshire, Derbyshire, England East Midlands

Recommendation added: 04/03/2006 16:24
By: scdaniels (YSUK rating +38)

scdaniels has been thanked 1 times for this contribution

"I started off quite early in the morning, and live in Leicester, so I was fortunate enough to visit Chatsworth House on the way to my accomodation. This is just outside of Bakewell.
The house itself is run by the national trust and is beautiful. There are sheep and cows, ducks and chickens all free roaming around the grounds. You can pay to go into both the house and gardens seperatly or at a reduce rate for the both together. I only went for the gardens, but took up half a day, with the maze, and the water features (all linked together, so the water is only pumped once), and the house is actually used in the film pride and predjudice.

After that be sure to visit Bakewell. It is a lovely rural village, which is part of the Derbyshire in Bloom campaign and is very colourful during summer. The original Bakewell pudding shop is open every day and sells the best cakes around in my opinion.

While in Derbyshire, it would be a shame to miss the famous caves. Most of these can be found in Castleton, and as I used to live in Derby, I have been down all of them and would say the best is Blue Johns cavern. It doesn't take too long, maybe an hour or too, but Derbyshire is the only place in the world to have blue john veins. There is speedwell cavern, which is basically just a mile ride in a boat under the ground, it is a nice trip, but I am quite scared of water, so found a mile (and back) in an underground canal a little terrifying, but the information was fascinating. Derbyshire has an abundance of pubs which do great traditional English meals, which will fill up even the most adventurous rambler, and while your there, check out the pedigree and bass beers. If you like the English countryside, then Derbyshire is a must!"