Thursday 23 April 2020

November in The Peaks #4 :: Christmas at Chatsworth

Hi there everyone 😀

Firstly, apologies that this post is so late ... I know it must seem a bit odd reading about Chatsworth at Christmas at this time of year, but it might be somewhere for you to put on the list for visiting later this year.
Our main reason for choosing The Peak District for our Autumn break was because I really wanted to visit the Chatsworth at Christmas event, along with the Chatsworth Christmas market.

We had booked ahead and I am so glad that we did. Because of the flooding that had occurred the week before we visited ... both the markets and the event had to be closed to visitors, apart from those who had pre-booked or were able to arrive on foot or via public transport.

It was a really frosty morning for our visit, so different from the previous day when we'd explored Padley Gorge, Owler Tor and the reservoirs. We decided to head out bright and early as we weren't sure what to expect by way of parking, but needn't have worried as all went very smoothly and we were soon parked up fairly close to the market.
The plan was ... quick look round the market, a wander round the garden, lunch, a proper look at the market, look round the house, pick up any purchases from the market and then home.
We were both quite impressed with our first look at the market. It wasn't too busy, there were lots of stalls selling all kinds of things ... there were lots of lovely food stalls, making us wish we hadn't actually booked ourselves in the restaurant for lunch ...
... Beautiful Christmas decorations ...
... and lots of lovely gift ideas ... we could definitely see some Christmas shopping taking place later on ...
It all certainly felt very festive ...
After our quick reconnoiter of the market there was time for a quick wander round the gardens before it would be time to head for lunch. It's been a while since we've visited the gardens and we've certainly never seen them at this time of year and it all looked very different.

We started out by heading alongside the house ...
... and along the Broad Walk ...
... stopping along the way to look back at the house and the very frosty yew hedges ...

The best view though ... had to be from just before the Emperor Fountain ...
From here we headed away from the house and towards the Ring Pond ...
... from where we could look back across at the house through the trees ...
By the Ring Pond I was really taken with this lily-of-the-valley bench ...
... and there was a great view of the Serpentine Hedge snaking away into the distance ...
We weren't planning on walking that far so headed through to the Rock Garden ...
... before heading back towards the bottom of the Cascade ...
... where we managed a quick selfie ...
From here we could really take in the scale of the house ...
We headed round past the greenhouses ...
We were then back into the market for another quick wander ...
... before making our way to The Cavendish Restaurant for, what ended up being a very disappointing lunch ... but the less said about that the better.

Lunch out of the way it was our time slot to visit the house, which was all decked out for Christmas around the World.

I will apologise now for the quality of our photos. For some reason we didn't seem to have much luck with the Canon DSLR or the Lumix ... the best photos probably ended up coming from my phone.

There was plenty to see, with lots of Christmas trees decorated to reflect different countries ... I have just picked out the best of our photos to share with you ... so here you go ... Christmas at Chatsworth 2019 ...




By the time we came out of the house it was starting to get dusky and it was time to pick up the Christmas gifts that we'd spotted earlier on before heading back to Willow Cottage to get warmed up 🔥🔥🔥

So that was our last travels for 2019 and, though we didn't know it then, for the forseeable. So far in 2020 we've had to postpone a trip to Dunkeld in Scotland and a stay in Yorkshire, for our annual meet up with old friends. I am very much hoping that things will be looking a bit more normal in the Autumn and that we get to finally visit Sidmouth on the Devon coast 🤞🤞🤞

I do still have one last impromptu trip to share with you though. We did manage a few days last minute break in Windsor in February, just before the World as we know changed completely ... so look out for that 😀

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3 comments:

  1. Wow! The christmas market and decorations inside Chatsworth looks amazing! Definitely worth a visit next month if COVID allows...

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    Replies
    1. It was a real treat. Not sure whether it is going ahead this year but if not then definitely one to put on the list as being worth a visit 😃

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