Chatsworth House and Park

Chatsworth House is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire,house and gardens have attracted visitors, from all over the world, for many generations. Chatsworth house was begun in 1552 by Bess of Hardwick and her husband Sir William Cavendish.  The park was landscaped by Capability Brown and further enhanced by Joseph Paxton resulting the creation of the famous 'Emperor Fountain', beware when it's on the spray you may get wet. On a summer's day you can dip your toes in the Cascade and take in the breathtaking views.

In the house there many interesting paintings, tapestries, furniture and a sculpture gallery. On the day we visited the bust of Mr Darcy from the 2005 film version of 'Pride and Prejudice' had many admirers including me, if you are a Mr darcy fan yourself visit our page on Lyme Park. Chatsworth House and Park has also been the setting for many other films and television programmes, including 'The Duchess' 2007, 'Jane Eyre' 2006, 'Peak Practice' and 'Wolfman' 2009.

Once you have looked around the house and gardens refuel at the restaurant or take a picnic into the grounds, then visit the well stocked gift shop. If you have children go to the Farmyard & Adventure Playground after going around the house and gardens as the kids won't want to leave the slides and ropewalks. In the farmyard you'll find lots of animals(piggies are our favourites) and the man sized adventure playground will give you hours of fun. Don't think that the rope walk and slide is just for kids, I've seen grown men shake at the top of the ropewalk and they all scream as they come down the giant slide.

On two wintry occasions we took the boys sledging at Chatsworth along with plenty of others. It was a great morning and nobody managed to get as far as the road (visible near the trees in the picture below) although some were pretty close. Whether you used a plastic/wooden sledge or just a sheet of plastic you went really fast, although as you'll notice from the pictures it wasn't exactly deep snow for sledging, glad to report no brusies.