Where to stay
The decision is whether you want to walk to the house. From Baslow you can: 1.5 miles through the park on a flat path, and the village has the widest choice of rooms within reach of the park gate. The estate’s own inns at Beeley and Pilsley put you in a village of a few hundred people with a pub that is the estate’s pub. Bakewell has the most choice and the most restaurants and is ten minutes away by car. The estate lets holiday cottages through its own site; everything else is on the places to stay page, nearest first.
Saturday
Morning. Walk in from Baslow if you are staying there; otherwise book the first house slot and arrive for it. Ninety minutes in the house. Take the audio guide, and stop in the Library.
Lunch. Out of the crowds: the farm shop cafe at Pilsley, two miles away, or a pub in Beeley.
Afternoon. The garden, slowly. The classic loop takes two hours; the extras (the maze, the kitchen garden, the ravine) take the rest of the afternoon. The fountains stop at 4.30pm.
Evening. Back to the village. The estate pubs take bookings and need them at weekends; the pubs page and restaurants page list what is within a short drive.
Sunday
Morning. One of two walks. If it is fine, the Chatsworth to Bakewell circuit: ten kilometres over Calton Pastures to Bakewell and back, the estate’s own suggested route, with a pudding in the middle. If it is not, the Edensor loop in an hour and a half.
Afternoon. Haddon Hall, six miles away above the Wye: medieval, unaltered, half the size and half the visitors, with a terraced garden above the river. Or the Monsal Trail from Bakewell, flat and traffic-free through the tunnels to Monsal Head, with bikes for hire.
Leaving. South through Rowsley and Matlock for the M1 at junction 28, or over the tops through Baslow and Chesterfield for junction 29.
Timing
Late May and June for the garden; late September and October for the walking and the colour; a weekday pair rather than a weekend if you can. Christmas is a different weekend with different rules: see the Christmas guide.