Bakewell 2013: My First Campsite Camp

My first campsite camp with the wife was a brief one-night stay in Bakewell, Derbyshire. It was a bit of a trial-run for our new tent.

Despite being well within the grips of September, the sun was shining when we rolled up to Greenhill's Holiday Park, just outside of Bakewell. It turns out camping at this time of year has its pros and cons; on the plus side, we had the place virtually to ourselves, but the trade-off was the on-site pub was shut.
The campsite was quite a size, catering for us tenting folk, motor homes & caravans, and also had some static caravans. The toilets/washrooms were very clean, but the pot-washing facilities seemed limited to one external tap in the middle of the field.

We wrestled the tent up, bickering with each other throughout, then took ourselves on the short drive into the town centre. And here's my first tip- find out where the car parks are before you set off. We found parking to be a real struggle, only happening upon short-stay car parks despite doing several laps of the town. On our return home I did some Googling, and there does seem to be several all-day car parks, though god-knows where.

Bakewell itself is a quaint little town with windy streets and hidden courtyards, and is populated in the main by camping/outdoor shops, pie shops and cafe's. By all accounts the market is very good, though unfortunately by the time we'd pitched-up the market had packed up.

We had tea in one of the local pubs, where I sampled what seemed to be a local specialty, Homity Pie*, and I have to say I very much enjoyed it- so much so I bought a couple from one of the pie shops to take home with me.
Bakewell pudding- not tart- is the real specialty of the town though, and very much worth a try.

The quantity of outdoor shops led me to believe that Bakewell may be a good base for some country walking, but unfortunately our stay was too brief for us to explore this further. If this is the case, then it would be worth a return trip, but otherwise its the kind of place you can see in a day.


*Homity pie seems to be on the menu of most pubs in Bakewell, and available in most pie shops. Despite this, I can't find any reference of it being affiliated with the town, and all indicators are that it is a traditional British dish with its origins in WWII at the time of rationing.


Greenhills Holiday Park

Bakewell Online