Palace and puddings
Roly Smith takes a bracing winter stroll through the parklands of Chatsworth
Chatsworth, Peak District
“THE GILDED FRAMES OF THE WINDOWS GLOW GOLD IN THE LIGHT LIKE A FAIRYTALE PALACE”
Our ‘next door neighbour’ just across the hill from here in Bakewell is the Duke of Devonshire and his stately pile of Chatsworth, one of the best-loved houses in Britain.
And one of my favourite mid-winter rambles is this easy six-mile circular walk from the home of the delicious Bakewell pudding and across
Calton Pastures to visit his home and parklands. Winter is one of the loveliest times to take this walk, because you’ll often have the frosty meadows to yourself, and have a better chance of seeing wildlife, such as the herds of deer that graze in the mature Capability Brown-designed grounds.
1 ANCIENT VISTAS
The walk goes up across
Bakewell golf course – surely one of the most scenic in the country – steeply through bare-branched Manners
Wood and across the breezy heights of Calton Pastures. These open grassy meadows are punctuated by a group of 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mounds. They are now all fenced in to prevent erosion, but I still like to stand on each of them and admire the same extensive views towards the Eastern
Moors and Stanage Edge that our early ancestors must have once enjoyed.
The craters in the top of each provide evidence of the burrowings of Victorian antiquaries like Thomas Bateman, who unearthed patterned burial urns once placed there to allow our forefathers to watch over the living from these exalted vantage points.
2 LAST OF THE SWALLOWS
Climbing the sheep-studded pastures you pass a lovely little reed-fringed pond where, in autumn, I love to watch the swallows take their last drink before their incredible 5,000mile migration to sub-Saharan Africa. Resident coots usually reveal their presence with a loud “kowk” to ward off intruders.
3 EMPEROR’S ADVENT
Cross the broad expanses of Calton Pastures and then turn north to pass the black-andwhite Russian Cottage, built by the 6th Duke for a promised visit by his good friend, Russian Tsar Nicholas I, in 1844.
Unfortunately the Tsar, troubled by more pressing matters at home, never came, but the cottage and the famous gravity-fed Emperor Fountain in the gardens of the big house – at 60m one of the highest in Britain – remain.
Passing through a walled lane through the pines of New
Piece Plantation, you emerge at a gate to enjoy what must be one of the finest views of a stately home in the country. Down across the valley, Chatsworth’s classical Palladian pile of warm brown sandstone sits on the banks of the Derwent, with the turrets of Bess of Hardwick’s original 16th-century Hunting Tower peeping out over the sombre backdrop of the tall trees of Stand Wood.
If you are here towards the end of the day, the gilded frames of the house’s windows will glow gold in the dying light like a fairytale palace. Indeed, Chatsworth is still often referred to as ‘the Palace of the Peak’, and you can visit the house, with its sumptuous art collections, and extensive gardens throughout winter.