Phil J.
Free Member
Great weekend away 27th February with our Motorhome and a nice tour round our local area – The Derbyshire Peak District. First stop on Friday morning was at the lovely old market town of Wirksworth to visit some old friends of ours for a chinwag and a coffee then drove over to Carsington Water. Lots to do here, walkers, cyclists, dog walkers and bird watchers all catered for. Parked up, had a stroll and lunch overlooking the reservoir.
Next stop on our little tour was a pub/eatery we had seen with good reviews on Tripadviser. The Ketch at Kiveton, near Ashbourne, http://www.theketchkniveton.co.uk/, is very motorhome friendly. We had taken the precaution of calling first and spoke to the lovely Holly who said parking on their car park wouldn’t be a problem if we were eating there. If you want to give it a try I recommend booking to eat in advance as they get quite busy. We parked up on the gravel overflow car park which, incidentally, is at the side of their camping field but couldn’t be used at this time of year due to being too damp. Friday is steak night and I had an excellent, gut buster mixed grill and Ena had a rump steak. The Ketch has a great atmosphere and excellent, reasonably priced food and very friendly service. They have several regular theme nights, homemade pie night Wednesdays, homemade stacked burger night on Thursdays and, of course, Friday night steak nights. We can highly recommend The Ketch as a great place to visit in a nice location. The only drawback to staying overnight was just slight, occasional, passing traffic noise.
Next morning, after a leisurely breakfast we headed for Ilam Hall and Country Park. This is a National Trust property. There are very nice walks by the River Manifold and through the park. Unusually, Ilam Park has it’s own Caravan park . We had a look round and the wardens are very nice and it appears to be very well run - worth a look.
We continued our trip and passing through Hartington and noticed a sign outside the Charles Cotton Hotel announcing entertainment that evening. We pulled up outside on the road and had a sneaky look at the car park but it was too restricted for motorhome access. As it looked a nice place I had a word with the receptionist who thought parking on the road wouldn’t be a problem. There is also a small car park in the centre which would probably be OK too. We decided to stay where we were and had dinner in our Moho before going over to the Hotel. The Charles Cotton has an excellent selection of real ales and a taster of 3 different ones (1/3rd of a pint each) of your choice for the price of a pint. The evening was very pleasent with very sociable guests, regulars and staff. The singer was OK and it was nice to have a bit of light background music.
No problem staying overnight by the road but may be different in the summer with more visitors.
We returned home after breakfast via Cromford and had a walk round the village.
Great weekend and really pleased to be using our new acquisition as it’s supposed to be used.
Next stop on our little tour was a pub/eatery we had seen with good reviews on Tripadviser. The Ketch at Kiveton, near Ashbourne, http://www.theketchkniveton.co.uk/, is very motorhome friendly. We had taken the precaution of calling first and spoke to the lovely Holly who said parking on their car park wouldn’t be a problem if we were eating there. If you want to give it a try I recommend booking to eat in advance as they get quite busy. We parked up on the gravel overflow car park which, incidentally, is at the side of their camping field but couldn’t be used at this time of year due to being too damp. Friday is steak night and I had an excellent, gut buster mixed grill and Ena had a rump steak. The Ketch has a great atmosphere and excellent, reasonably priced food and very friendly service. They have several regular theme nights, homemade pie night Wednesdays, homemade stacked burger night on Thursdays and, of course, Friday night steak nights. We can highly recommend The Ketch as a great place to visit in a nice location. The only drawback to staying overnight was just slight, occasional, passing traffic noise.
Next morning, after a leisurely breakfast we headed for Ilam Hall and Country Park. This is a National Trust property. There are very nice walks by the River Manifold and through the park. Unusually, Ilam Park has it’s own Caravan park . We had a look round and the wardens are very nice and it appears to be very well run - worth a look.
We continued our trip and passing through Hartington and noticed a sign outside the Charles Cotton Hotel announcing entertainment that evening. We pulled up outside on the road and had a sneaky look at the car park but it was too restricted for motorhome access. As it looked a nice place I had a word with the receptionist who thought parking on the road wouldn’t be a problem. There is also a small car park in the centre which would probably be OK too. We decided to stay where we were and had dinner in our Moho before going over to the Hotel. The Charles Cotton has an excellent selection of real ales and a taster of 3 different ones (1/3rd of a pint each) of your choice for the price of a pint. The evening was very pleasent with very sociable guests, regulars and staff. The singer was OK and it was nice to have a bit of light background music.
No problem staying overnight by the road but may be different in the summer with more visitors.
We returned home after breakfast via Cromford and had a walk round the village.
Great weekend and really pleased to be using our new acquisition as it’s supposed to be used.