Kedlestone Hall with Dennis and Sandra

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70 miles or thereabouts

We drove up to Kedlestone Hall, near Ashbourne today, to meet up with fellow lovers of ‘days-out’, Dennis and Sandra. We’re building up quite a list of destinations since we started this with them back in 2017.

Hardwick Hall (August 2020)
Castle Howard (December 2019)
The Royal Armouries Museum (March 2019)
Bols
over Castle (October 2018)
Belton House (May 2018)
York (Feb
ruary 2018)
Burghley House (October 2017)
Hull (May 2017)
Leeds (February 2017)

Quite a view!
An impressive entrance!

We arrived within minutes of each other – just before 1pm. The Hall was already very busy, and it took us a while to find a parking space. Given you-know-what, not everything was operational, specifically, only a small part of the Hall was open to the public. Entry was via the rear of the property, taking us via the ‘back stairs’.

However, what we did see clearly illustrated that the former owners – The Curzon family – had plenty of cash to splash on the property. I’ve seen quite a few National Trust mansions in my time and this one felt the ‘up there’ with the blingiest and best of them!

Another great view!
Yellow Rhododendrons????

We were in and out inside an hour, but based on what we saw, it’s going to be worth a revisit once everything inside is open to all.

With the Hall’s (limited) interior ticked-off, we set off for a walk around the grounds. There are two walks: The Long Walk and The Short Walk. Interestingly though, the sign for BOTH pointed in the SAME direction – and we never saw another!! 😮

Along the ‘Short Walk’ (or was it the ‘Long Walk’?)

We headed off in the signs’ direction, which turned out to be a almost-circular route taking in some more stunning views.

Wow!

Forty-minutes later, we were pretty much back where we started.

A waterproof picnic in the making!

With the walk completed (short?, long? Not sure!), it was time for our picnic – just as the rain came down. Still, being Brits, we’re well versed in picnics in challenging conditions!

It was great to catch-up with Dennis and Sandra, but it was a pity the weather wasn’t a bit kinder. The Hall was impressive, even though we only saw a small proportion of it – but that’s a perfect excuse to come back again! 😃


For all the photos, and none of my chat


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