There are two estate car parks, one rule that makes them free, and one village that lets you skip them altogether.
The two car parks
The house car park (sat nav DE45 1PP) is the one next to the house, garden, stables courtyard and farmyard. It is where almost everyone parks and where the ticket office, cafes and toilets are.
Calton Lees (sat nav DE4 2NX) is at the southern end of the park, off the B6012 between Beeley and the park gate. It is a 20-minute walk along the river from the house and the start of the estate’s own suggested walks. If you are coming for a walk rather than the house, or arriving from Matlock and the south, it is the better choice. Horseboxes and trailers park here only, at £25 a day.
Both charge £7.50 to £10 a day, the higher rate on peak dates.
How to park free
Book house, garden, farmyard, workshop or event tickets online before you arrive and one vehicle per booking parks free at the house car park. This is the single most useful fact on this page: the ticket costs the same online as at the gate, so booking ahead is purely a saving.
Blue Badge holders can reserve an accessible space through the same booking system, again one free space per pre-booked visitor. There is no parent-and-child parking.
The free alternative: walk in from Baslow
The north park gate is at Nether End in Baslow, where there is a council pay-and-display car park and, at quieter times, street parking. From the kissing gate beside the tea room a surfaced, level path runs 1.5 miles through the park to the house. It is pushchair- and wheelchair-friendly, takes about half an hour, and gives you the best approach view of the house there is. If you are only walking in the park, or visiting the garden with a ticket already booked, this is the way to do it. Details on the Baslow to Chatsworth walk.
Beeley and Edensor have a few roadside spaces but they are villages, not car parks; do not block a gateway or a resident.
Busy days
On summer weekends and bank holidays the house car park fills by late morning and the queue backs up along the drive. Arrive before 10.30am, or come in from Baslow. The Country Fair in early September has its own free fair car parks in the park, with a paid In-Show option (£25 a day, advance booking only) about 200 m from the Grand Ring.
Christmas
Christmas changes everything. From 7 November to 13 December the house car park is reserved for visitors with a pre-booked event, dining or market ticket, and everyone else parks in the parkland car park and rides a tractor-and-trailer shuttle across the park to the house and market. The shuttle is wheelchair accessible; the trackway is unmade and can be muddy, so wear boots. From 14 December the main car park is used again. Christmas tickets include one parking space per booking.
Charging and bikes
There is no electric-vehicle charging on site; the nearest public chargers are in Bakewell, Baslow and Chesterfield. Cycle parking is at the front of the house next to the left-luggage room, and cycling is allowed on the park’s roads and tracks (not in the garden).