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Day 7: June 27th – Chatsworth 

Chatsworth is about a 10 minute drive from the Red Lion and totally deserves its own post. It remains the Duke Devonshire’s home ( well he has recently retired and downsized to a village called Ensor so his son lives there. Doubt the Duke is in a retirement village but you never know). The house remains in private ownership and is run as a commercial venture and very successfully for many reasons: it’s huge; it’s palatial; the grounds and gardens are spectacular; it hosts modern art exhibits throughout with a different exhibition each year.  It’s a bit of a wow!

The family live in the front wing on the left. It has the flag pole. Just a small portion of the building with only 40 rooms. There are loads of photos with good reason. 
Inside the grand entrance hall looking up the stairs
And looking back from the top of the stairs

Many, but not all of the exterior window sashes are gilt. Not sure if they all were originally.

This is a view from an internal courtyard

There are many different styles within the house. Some rooms are quite dark and others very opulent.

The dining room. We would have loved to try one of the chairs for comfort. They looked amazing and were all different.
The former chapel complete with Damian Hirst golden sculpture as substitute for the altar.
The Damien Hiirst. Saint Bartholemew: Exquisite Pain
Everyone has to have a sculpture room.
There are a pair of these at the end on each side of the door. This one appears to be snoozing.

The house also has some permanent modern pieces as well as the works from the current exhibition.

I think the bed is permanent. Same artist/ designer as the chairs and also some pieces on the wall that double as shelving.
Part of the current exhibition

The sculptures continue outside.

Note the gilt flames along the roofline torch sculptures. There is probably an architectural term for them!
Looking back along the house.
The bronze guard dogs are remarkably lifelike and are dotted around the private lawn.

The layout of the grounds was designed by Capability Brown and the garden itself is a Joseph Paxton masterpiece. Absolutely stunning as are the glasshouses, although the largest was demolished and replaced with the maze as it was too costly to heat!

The fountain is in a 300 or 400m pond which can be seen from the house.
View towards the end of the long path beside the pond. It all slopes uphill to give the right perspective. Unfortunately we had a prominent young couple that polluted our more distant photos.
The maze
This snake was amazing. You can walk through it.

There’s a water feature that flows down the side of the hill back towards the house.

Looking downwards
And back up
One of the glasshouses
This chair made of US silver dollars is one of a pair outside another glasshouse. We assume it relates to the Kennedy connection. One of the former heirs was married to JFKs aunt, although the heir died before his father so she never became the duchess.

And of course there must be stables, which today house very nice shops on 3 sides of a lovely courtyard.

Outside one wall of the stables.
Inside the stables courtyard

All in all a pretty good afternoon out. Would visit again 🤗