Excellent Derbyshire hotel

One of the best things about my job reviewing hotels all over Britain is discovering how beautiful my own country is. One of the many counties I had only previously passed through is Derbyshire, but two recent visits to hotels there have put paid to that. Both were in the Derbyshire Dales, one on the Chatsworth estate and the other on the Haddon Hall estate, owned by the Dukes of Devonshire and Rutland respectively. I had the luck to be given a show round Haddon Hall by the charming present incumbent, Lord Edward Manners, and it was fascinating. Abandoned as a home by the Rutland family for two centuries it is one of the best preserved medieval great houses in the country and its kitchens are unsurpassed for their historical value. Even the 800 year old chopping blocks are still intact… the kitchen is brilliantly laid out too; you could start cooking in there right away and would hardly want to change a thing. While we looked round the Hall, the husband happily fished for rare wild rainbow trout on the river below its walls, under the patient tutelage of the estate’s chief ghillie, who managed to ensure that he caught one–in the end. See under Latest Reviews on our home page for a full review of the Peacock at Rowsley.

Off to two more country hotels, near Winchester and at Castle Combe. Will report back soon. My friend Widge and I are getting a golf lesson at Castle Combe tomorrow…the first time that either of us have held a golf club in friendship or in anger in our lives.