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With the AA’s Best English Hotel award tucked under one arm and The Sunday Times’ hotel of the year under the other, this recently renovated and supremely cosy Peak District bolthole – the most upscale hotel on Derbyshire’s regal Chatsworth Estate, a mile or two from Chatsworth House itself – would have every excuse for feeling smug.
If 2025 was a big year for The Cavendish, it’s wearing all that acclaim lightly judging by my two nights there with my nine-year-old in tow. The default is family-friendly and helpful, with low-key excellence that unfolds quietly around you. A ‘de-stressing device’ is how its manager, Steve Daly, likes to think of the place. Somewhere to escape and unplug at the end of a long week. That process is eased into thanks to the watercolour views across a rolling Derbyshire valley from every window, as well as a kitchen that turns locally-sourced ingredients into unpretentious works of arts.
What are the rooms like at The Cavendish Hotel?
The bedrooms offer a comforting slice of English country life, with the usual mod cons taking a back seat to writing desks, lamps, glazed ceramics and armchairs to sink into. There are 28 in total, each with a view out across the rolling countryside and elegant bathrooms with roll top baths. Each is named after a Chatsworth duchess or a gardener from the estate’s past. Ours had a four-poster bed, and if it wasn't quite as extravagant as the 14-foot one you’ll find in Chatsworth’s royal chambers, it felt fairly regal. It’s lovely to stay somewhere this connected to its picture book surroundings – no need to switch on the TV with views like this.
What is the food and restaurant like at The Cavendish?
There are two restaurants: the bright, pavilion-style Garden Room, which serves fancy teas (including one themed around Pride & Prejudice) and will serve you up a hunk of Derbyshire pork belly (£28) or a dressed burrata with Chatsworth garden tomatoes (£15) from its elite pub grub menu.
Here, and in the fine dining Gallery Restaurant, chef Adam Harper keeps things hyper-local with ingredients mostly sourced within a 10-mile radius. The Gallery showcases the best of Peak District cuisine. The three-course menu almost justified its London prices (£79) with one fluffy cloud of a brioche bun alone (all the bread is baked here). The special ‘Regency’ menu offered a juicy saddle of Chatsworth lamb with local asparagus, and strawberries and cream so decadent, they’d make the menu at a Bridgerton soirée. The nine-year-old claimed that the fish and chips on the kids menu was ‘the best she’s ever eaten’ – and she’s had a lot. Breakfast, meanwhile, was a 10-out-of-10-no-notes joy in a calming space with magical views. At least, until the Uno came out.
What’s the area like around The Cavendish Hotel?
In a word: historic. Across a meadow, over a brook and through a kissing gate lies Chatsworth House – AKA that place in all the Keira Knightley films. It’s one of Britain’s greatest stately homes, the ancestral seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire since 1694. The hotel has VIP access to its grounds. We had a lovely 20-minute stroll along this rolling Derwent River valley, past the estate’s cricket oval and up to the house for a Regency-themed tour full of tales of Jane Austen, Capability Brown’s famous gardens, and the legendary 6th Duke who went full Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the place back in the early 1800s. The gardens are so expansive, we got lost on the way to the maze, as well as in it.
Head in the other direction from The Cavendish, through the quiet village of Baslow, and you’ll find the dream walking country of the The gritstone rock cliff of Curbar Edge, with its views over Chatsworth, is only an hour’s walk. The historic market town famous of Bakewell is four miles away. If it’s swimming weather, take a 20-minute drive to Hathersage Swimming Pool, one of the UK’s most beautiful outdoor pools.
What are the facilities like at The Cavendish?
The 2024 renovation by designer Nicola Harding, with some help from Chatsworth heir Lady Burlington, has brought some of the estate’s furniture, ceramics, art and photography to the hotel. Landscapes line the dining room walls; elsewhere you’ll find striking works from visual artists like Jeremy Deller, Phyllida Barlow and Elisabeth Frink. There’s a cosy, 1950s-style bar and board games, if you’re looking to unwind after a day on the peaks. It’s aristocratic living without any of the airs and graces.
DETAILS
Address: Church Lane, Baslow, Bakewell DE45 1SP
Price per night: From £250/person
Closest transport: 10-minute taxi from Grindleford station.