Best things to do in Bakewell (Derbyshire, England) in 2024!

A comfortable market town, Bakewell is in the White Peak in the southeast of the Peak District National Park. The town is a springboard for two of England’s most celebrated stately homes. Chatsworth House is the magnificent seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, replete with art. You will also see this place often voted the country’s favourite country house. Less famous but equally elegant is Haddon Hall, shining for its Medieval and Tudor architecture. You can discover the best of the White Peak along the Monsal and High Peak Trail and many more. Back in the town, you can find a 16th-century Yeoman’s house converted into a museum. Further, you will also find a medieval bridge and a church with wonderful monuments from the 14th and 15th centuries. Below are the best things to do in Bakewell that you can explore with a seamless England tour package from Pickyourtrail!

10 Best things to do in Bakewell

Let us explore the best things to do in Bakewell:

1. Chatsworth House
2. White Peak
3. Haddon Hall
4. Bakewell Old House Museum
5. Thornbridge Hall Gardens
6. Monsal Trail
7. All Saints’ Church
8. Bakewell Bridge
9. Arbor Low
10. Bath Gardens Bakewell

1. Chatsworth House

In 2018, this world-famous stately home completed its largest renovation for two centuries. Sixteen generations of the powerful Cavendish family (the Dukes of Devonshire) have resided at Chatsworth since 1549. You can see this house stuffed full of precious art, furniture, ceramics, and ancient Egyptian artefacts. The building has been altered to suit its residents, but its exterior is mostly Neoclassical from the 19th century. You can also see older 17th-century Baroque elements on the eastern facade. Also from this time are the Painted Hall and the Chapel, two of the least altered rooms in the house.

2. White Peak

In Bakewell, you will be under the spell of the United Kingdom’s first-ever National Park (1951). This southern portion of the Peak District is the White Peak. This comes from the white limestone geology of the region. This stone has been quarried for centuries, and if you travel the Monsal Trail, you will be able to see the underlying strata. You will see the countryside around Bakewell with drystone walls, heather moorland, and wildflowers. At the Bakewell visitor centre in the handsome 17th-century market hall, you can check out displays about the Peak District. You can also get hold of information on walking trails and sights in the White Peak.

3. Haddon Hall

Built-in stages between the 13th and 17th centuries, Haddon Hall is a marvellous country house on the Wye, a couple of miles from the centre of Bakewell. The Dukes of Rutland resided here and are renowned as arguably the finest surviving Medieval manor house in the UK. One reason so little has changed is that Haddon Hall was deserted for 200 years until it was made livable again in the 1920s. You will tour the interior, stepping into the atmospheric old kitchen and the banquet hall, which has a massive table that has never been moved from this location. There is also a wonderful terrace and walled topiary garden outside, with breathtaking views of the Peak District.

4. Bakewell Old House Museum

Open from March to November, this museum is in a 16th-century Yeoman’s residence, a tithe (tax collector’s home). The building was built in 1536 and expanded later, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, as a gentleman’s residence. In the 18th century, this building housed workers for Sir Richard Arkwright’s mills. The Old House has decoration and design from Tudor to Victorian times, furnished with grand fireplaces, wooden beams, and walls of wattle and daub. You can also see a display of period textiles, as well as tableaux showing Christopher Plant, the Tudor tithe collector, at his books, and learn the story of the Bakewell Pudding in the kitchen.

5. Thornbridge Hall Gardens

On Wednesdays and Thursdays in summer, you can discover this extraordinary garden in the grounds of a large country house. Thornbridge Hall Gardens has recently become a Royal Horticultural Society “partner garden” and was designed in a formal style in the 19th century. The man behind the garden, George Marples, wanted to see “1,000 shades of green” from his bedroom window. In these 12 acres, there is a koi lake, rock garden, woodland, 30-meter herbaceous border, Italian garden, and terraced lawns with a delightful prospect of the Peak District countryside. Some of the figures here come from Chatsworth, while others were gifts from the Greek government.

6. Monsal Trail

Bakewell is at the end of a fantastic 8.5-mile walking and cycling path on the route of the old Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midland Junction Railway. The line was founded in 1863 to construct a rail link between Manchester and London and was shut down in 1968. The route ends, or starts, just east of Bakewell at Coombs Road, and what makes it such a treat is the amount of railway design to be found on the route. You will ride or walk past former stations, over bridges, and through six tunnels, four of which are so long they have to be lit during the daylight hours. The Headstone Viaduct is a real highlight, spanning one of the most stunning dales in the Peak District.

7. All Saints’ Church

Bakewell’s fine parish church has Anglo-Saxon roots and was founded in 920. The Normans rebuilt the church in the 12th century, and this building was heavily reworked in the 1230s. Most of the design is Gothic, although the west front and parts of the facade are Norman Romanesque. Some of the oldest fixtures at All Saints’ Church belong to the local Manners and Vernon families who lived at Haddon Hall. The Vernon Chapel is a blessing and has tombs for figures like Sir Thomas Wendesley, who died at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

8. Bakewell Bridge

Not much of Medieval Bakewell has made it to the 21st century, which only makes this solemn five-arched bridge over the Wye more important. Built from ashlar sandstone, this Grade I-listed monument dates from around the beginning of the 14th century and has Gothic pointed arches and has triangular cutwaters that extend up the side of the bridge to form retreats for pedestrians. The last major intervention took place in the 1800s, when it was expanded for road traffic. Set off here for a wander south next to the Wye, which has some of the most beautiful scenery in Bakewell.

9. Arbor Low

Arbor Low is a fascinating Neolithic henge often called the “Stonehenge of the North.”. This place has more in common with the stone circle in Avebury and has some 50 large rocks, quarried locally from the limestone of the White Peak. The stones are organised in a rough egg pattern and are on an elevated oval bank (henge), encircled by a ditch and bank. Some 3,500 years after Arbor Low has dropped, its earthworks still climb to more than two meters. There is a barrow (burial mound) on one side of the ditch, and about 300 meters away is Gib Hill, an enormous Neolithic barrow around 4,500 years old.

10. Bath Gardens

Beside Rutland Square in the centre of Bakewell, you will see a peaceful garden maintained by the local council. This little park has tracks between colourful borders and expertly manicured lawns. You will also be able to see walls clad with ivy, young fruit trees, a pergola, and ornaments. The fountain here is maintained by water from Bakewell’s warm chalybeate spring. While the park is the former site of a bathhouse, built in 1697. The later part of an attempt made to establish Bakewell as a spa resort to rival Buxton and Matlock.

This small market town is a great place to visit with your family. You can enjoy anything from witnessing the White Peak to the mesmerizing landscapes to the fun and exciting adventures and so much more. Moreover, most of the things are free here. So what are you waiting for? Book your England honeymoon, family, or luxury package with Pickyourtrail for a hassle-free getaway!