Chatsworth & Matlock
This stretch of the Derwent Valley pairs one of England's grandest stately homes with a Victorian resort village that earned itself the nickname "Little Switzerland" for its steep, wooded gorge setting.
Chatsworth House, seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for more than 500 years, sits in a landscaped park designed in part by Capability Brown, with formal gardens that include the Cascade, the Emperor Fountain, and a working kitchen garden and farmyard. The house and grounds are open to visitors for much of the year and remain a working family home as well as a visitor attraction.
A few miles south, Matlock Bath grew up as a spa village in the 18th century and reinvented itself in Victorian times as an inland seaside resort of sorts, complete with an amusement park feel along the Derwent. The Heights of Abraham, reached by a cable car strung across the gorge, gives views over the whole valley and access to show caverns once mined for lead and fluorspar. The steep, wooded hillsides either side of the river are what earned the village its "Little Switzerland" tag from early tourists. Nearby Matlock itself is the larger town and the county town's neighbour on the rail line, with its own Victorian hydro buildings from the same spa-tourism era.
Where to Stay near Chatsworth & Matlock
- The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow — a country house hotel on the edge of the Chatsworth estate, within a short drive of the house itself.
- New Bath Hotel & Spa — an 18th-century hotel set in its own grounds in Matlock Bath, close to the Derwent Gardens.
- The Devonshire Arms at Beeley — a village inn on the Chatsworth estate itself, a walk from the house across the park.
Getting there
Matlock and Matlock Bath both sit on the Derwent Valley line from Derby, making the train a practical way to reach the villages themselves; Chatsworth House is a few miles further on and best reached by car or the seasonal bus link from Bakewell.