Last summer the wife and I had our first proper camping holiday, in the charming spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire.
By nothing more than pure chance, we happened to book our jaunt for what ended up being the best week of weather we had all year, and so we made sure we got out and enjoyed it.
The wife booked us into Staden Grange camp site, which turned out to be an excellent choice. The tent pitches are under a copse of trees surrounded by fields, giving the impression of being in the middle of nowhere despite being only a 5 minute drive away from Buxton centre. The toilet and shower facilities were brand new and immaculate, in a purpose-built free-standing unit, and the owners were very helpful and informative and kept a well-stocked information desk in the reception area.
But some idiot always has to spoil things: on the first morning I stood in a dog sh*t yards from our tent door. Luckily another idiot had left a bent tent peg lying dangerously around (not to sound too melodramatic, but is was bent in such a way that if I'd have stood on the wrong end first, the other end would have been through my foot), so I was able to use this to broddle the turd out of my trainers.
Buxton itself is a lovely little town, with an excellent park at its centre- the Pavillion Gardens- which was pleasantly free of white lightning-drinking neds. There's plenty of historical architecture to take in, including the Crescent (see top photo), the Devonshire Dome, the Buxton Opera House and the Natural Baths, and we were lucky enough to time our visit to coincide with the Buxton Festival, a rather cultural affair.
There are plenty of camping and outdoor shops in the town centre, along with a disproportionate amount of charity shops.
Just out of the centre is Poole's Cavern, a fantastic limestone cave, and a short walk from here will see you to Solomon's Temple which offers unobstructed panoramic views of the area.
Buxton is a great base for some local sightseeing, with Chatsworth House, Bakewell and Matlock Bath being a short drive away. We popped over to Matlock Bath for the day, which while in itself doesn't offer much in the way of entertainment, is the home of Gulliver's Kingdom theme park, and you can take the cable cars up to the Heights of Abraham, a ticket for which gives you access to a number of other exhibitions and cavern tours. We decided to not to bother this time around, instead opting to walk the couple of miles into Matlock, which sports many antiques shops and another nice park.
The weather was beautiful all week, and we chose to spend most evenings sat outside our tent basking in the sun, during which time I almost swallowed a wasp who had mistaken my fruit cider for his own.
On our last morning, we were bid a fond farewell by the local birds who decided to launch a sh*tting raid on our tent. Did I say it was nice camping under trees?
Visit Buxton
No comments:
Post a Comment