Peak District, United Kingdom

The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow

Price per night from$244.34

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP185.94), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Farmhouse fancy

Setting

Peak position

Resting peacefully in the Derbyshire Dales, the Cavendish Hotel at Baslow brings a design-forward flair and creative charm to its stately locale. Rooms are dressed with artisanal details and calming tones, a valley-framing terrace attracts resting hikers and an all-local restaurant serves plates of the Peak District’s finest produce. And then there’s the surrounding Chatsworth Estate – a manicured expanse that awaits your endless exploring.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A Chatsworth canvas bag, plus a voucher for 10 per cent off at the Estate’s farm shop

Facilities

Photos The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow facilities

Need to know

Rooms

28, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast, but a Continental spread is available for £12.50 a person, or go all-out and add cooked options for £20.

Also

The Coach House’s two ground-floor rooms have been adapted for wheelchair use. There are three disabled parking spots (one near the front entrance and two by the Coach House), but please note that there’s a fairly steep ramp up to the car park and wheelchair access to the hotel is through the Garden Room to the rear. If you’re hoping to explore the National Park, the Monsal Trail is a scenic, wheelchair-friendly route.

At the hotel

Access to Chatsworth Estate; fruit and vegetable garden; and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, radio, minifridge, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes, hairdryer and bespoke bath products.

Our favourite rooms

All rooms admire Chatsworth’s expansive estate, but if you’re seeking something with an added layer of romance, we’d suggest the Splendid Suite for its four-poster bed, draped in locally made curtains, and enticing freestanding tub.

Packing tips

Once the Salomans and walking poles are packed, chuck in a pair of binoculars and a copy of the Peak District Pathfinder.

Also

A small fee will gain you access to Chatsworth Health and Fitness Club, which is well-equipped with a gym (including personal and group training), swimming pool, and tennis and netball courts.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs are welcome in a few Coach House rooms, as well as the Garden Room restaurant. A £15 charge will be added to your nightly rate if Fido is joining you, and if you want him to rest in clover, four-poster dog beds are available for an extra £35 a night. See more pet-friendly hotels in Peak District.

Children

Welcome; there aren’t any special facilities to keep them entertained, but there are plenty of child-friendly events throughout the year around the Chatsworth Estate. Rollaways can be added to the Splendid Suite, Spacious Coach House and Townhouse Suite.

Sustainability efforts

The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow takes sustainability seriously: single-use plastic is kept to an absolute minimum, extensive recycling programmes are in place, food waste is repurposed into biofuels, and bath products are all eco-friendly. The kitchen uses fruit and vegetables from the onsite gardens, and most of the other produce is sourced from small-scale suppliers within a 10-mile radius. The hotel has also pledged to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, net-zero emissions even earlier, and is accredited by Green Tourism.

Food and Drink

Photos The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow food and drink

Top Table

Bag one of the six coveted spots at the Gallery Restaurant’s Kitchen Table to watch the chefs in their element.

Dress Code

Tweeds, checks, wool tailoring and hedgerow-inspired brights all nail the countryside chic brief.

Hotel restaurant

Both eateries at the Cavendish are helmed by lauded chef Adam Harper, who has worked hard to ensure menus highlight the Peak District’s top-quality ingredients. At the accoladed Gallery Restaurant, everything that’s been used to whip up your rouille-paired trout has come from the Ladybower Fisheries up the road, marinated meats from David at Chatsworth Beef and Lamb, and most fruit and veg is grown minutes away, in the Estate's gardens. Buttermilk scones, homemade cakes, finger sandwiches and a lengthy list of teas are also available every afternoon. The Garden Room dishes its equally fresh fare in a brasserie-style setting, where rich terracotta reds and farmhouse features are wrapped in Chatsworth Estate views.

Hotel bar

Classic cocktails, fine wines, craft beers and local spirits are poured at the Bar & Lounge, where a gentle fireside crackle and flickering orange hue creates a cosy, convivial setting. In the summer, take your tipples alfresco and admire the estate’s arcadian sprawl.

Last orders

Breakfast is 7.30am to 11.45am in the Gallery Restaurant. Both restaurants serve lunch and dinner between noon and 9pm, and afternoon tea at the Gallery Restaurant is 12.30pm to 5pm. The bar pours from 11am to 11pm (noon to 10.30pm on Sundays).

Room service

Dishes from the Garden Room’s menu can be delivered to your door between 7.30am and 9pm. For late-night snacking, there’s an after-hours sandwich menu.

Location

Photos The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow location
Address
The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow
Church Lane Baslow
Bakewell
DE45 1SP
United Kingdom

The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow is set amid the Chatsworth Estate’s 35,000-acre parkland, in the Peak District National Park, along the River Derwent.

Planes

Manchester is your closest international airport, a little over an hour away by car. If you’re landing in one of London’s hubs, there are connecting flights up to Manchester. Private transfers can be arranged for an additional charge.

Trains

There are three options: Grindleford is the nearest station and has plenty of connecting routes around the UK. But if you’re coming from the capital, we’d suggest getting a direct train from London St Pancras to Chesterfield, which is a slightly further 20 minutes away. Private transfers can be arranged from both stations, as well as Matlock, for an extra cost.

Automobiles

The Peak District has an impressive public transport network, so you’ll be fine without a set of wheels. If you do decide to drive, there are 13 free-to-use car parks around the National Park (33 paid) and free private parking just outside the hotel, with two electric-vehicle charging spots.

Other

If you’re arriving on the chopper, there’s a helipad onsite.

Worth getting out of bed for

Start off wandering around Chatsworth Estate, set a short walk from the hotel. Staff can arrange private tours of the House’s millennia-spanning artefacts; or stick to the great outdoors and roam its 105-acre gardens, take to its riverside trails, fly fish in its waters and visit furry residents at the farmyard. The towns of Baslow, Bakewell, Buxton, Edensor and Matlock are also on your doorstep, and from the latter’s Masson Hill, cable car rides whisk you over the Derwent Valley’s undulating landscape.

The Cavendish Hotel’s main attraction is its Peak District setting, and with hundreds of miles to explore it’s unlikely you’ll tire of this rolling scenery. Hiking and cycling are the most popular ways to see the sights, but the almost-nine-mile Monsal Trail – running from Blackwell Mill to Bakewell – is also primed for horse riders. The fairly-flat Tissington Trail stretches 13 miles between Parsley Hay and Ashbourne; and if you’re up for a challenge, the River Derwent’s 55-mile stretch hits most of the National Park’s hotspots, and has plenty of pubs along the way, for a pint-sipping pitstop or two. 

Local restaurants

In a rustic setting, where pots and pans line blue-green cabinetry and leather banquettes seat chatting diners, Chatsworth Kitchen plates comforting cuisine that’s made with produce exclusively from the surrounding Derbyshire Dales. For fancy pub grub, the Devonshire Arms in Beeley and the Devonshire Arms in Pilsley both pair delectable British dishes with perfectly poured local brews.

Local cafés

Matlock Meadows Ice Cream has been a local institution since the 1930s, when the Dakin family first started whipping up their homemade gelato. Its name may not be the catchiest, but the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop has been serving this secret recipe for over 100 years, and is well-worth a try for its buttery base and almond custard filling.

Local bars

If you’re more oenophile than beer buff, ditch the pubs and head to Renishaw Hall Vineyard. First planted by Sir Reresby Sitwell in 1972, and now owned by the English Wine Project, this well established winery is an idyllic seasonal spot for tours and tastings.

Reviews

Photos The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this historic hotel along the River Derwent and unpacked their waxed Barbours and wellies, a full account of their country escape will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Cavendish Hotel at Baslow in the Peak District…

It’s hard to believe the caramel-hued manse that stands proudly at the edge of the Devonshire-owned Chatsworth Estate was once a run-down coaching inn. Rumour has it, the residence first fell into the family’s laps after their then-patriarch beat the Duke of Rutland at cards back in the 1830s. Whether it was Brag or Blackjack, we don’t know. But what we can say for certain is that the now-reformed Cavendish Hotel at Baslow has been dealt a fine hand.

It wasn’t all luck, mind. Renovations were carefully designed by interiors-maven Nicola Harding and the Countess of Burlington, whose creative minds have turned out to be quite the two pair. Art-adorned rooms are characterised by their local, all-English touches, and you’ll find nods to Chatsworth’s almost 500 years of history across the hotel’s cosy communal spaces and raved-about restaurant. Details aren’t spared when it comes to days out, either: from your bucolic base, Peak District hikes, tearoom pitstops and private house tours are just a few things on the cards.

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Price per night from $234.57