Captain's Log

NT Kedleston Hall

It had been a Monday morning rush hour drive south on the M1 to get to the National Trust’s Kedleston Hall. I was feeling a little bit stressed when I pulled into the drive of the Estate. There were two bollards just before the arched entrance and they were quite close together. A road sign at their side gave the maximum width of the vehicle that should attempt entry. I hadn’t a clue about my vehicle width. I noticed that there were paint marks on the bollards; obviously some cars had scraped their way into the Estate. There was a sign saying that there was an alternative entrance for wider vehicles. I felt a bit too stressed to go searching for that and so I crossed my fingers and eased my way between them without any problems. It was quite a long drive through woodland to get to the Hall. As the car exited the woodland a view of the House opened up beyond a lake and bridge. It looked magical. 

I parked up and then presented my National Trust member card to the NT Greeter at the entrance to the park. I’m not completely sure how the pricing works at Kedleston Hall. It is free to park and the online website says you pay to enter the Parkland, and then some more if you want to visit the Hall. I visited the Hall later on and the Greeter there said that I’d no need to present my card. I don’t know if non-members had to present anything to get into the Hall. 

 Anyway, all the paperwork was now done and I could start to enjoy myself. Today’s plan was to explore the Estate by wandering along its official trails. These include: Short Walk, Long Walk, Wilderness Walk and Lakeside Walk. The route I’d designed was to incorporate all of these official trails. The Short and Long Walk shared the same route initially and so I followed a fingerpost to get on to the trail. 

Long Walk

The Long Walk started off through woodland on a well made trail. Within a minute or two, all the cortisol that I’d stored up during this morning's hectic rush south, started to dissipate. It felt light and airy walking amongst the trees. I came across a couple of benches away from the trail on my right. They provided a wonderful elevated view across a green landscape. Further along I reached the hermitage which had recently been renovated. I tried the front door, but the hermit must have been out. Some Estates used to employ hermits to stay in their hermitage. I suppose it would have been a better job than working in the pit or a mill. In fact I wouldn’t have minded applying for the role for this particular hermitage since it looked like a nice, cosy setup.    

The trail turned to the southeast through a narrow band of woodland. Gates on the left allowed access to a large, open grassy area. Superb views opened up to Kedleston Hall that nestled in the low valley. Those doing the Short Walk could use one of these gates to cross the open area to the Hall. There were plenty of squirrels in the woodland. There were also plenty of acorns dropping from the trees in my direction and I wasn’t sure whether it was the squirrels throwing them. The trail changed direction to the north east and after making a gradual descent, I followed a sign to the Splash Pool. This turned out to be quite a nice pool with water from a weir running into it. A Mute Swan patrolled the top of the weir making sure no smaller birds got swept over it. The Estate had a series of lakes running from northeast to southeast with weirs separating them. I followed the Long Walk trail alongside the lowest lake. At the next weir, I spotted a couple of Little Egrets sitting in a tree on the other side of the water. The birds needed to keep their head down since they shared the ground with club-swingers who were busily driving around their course in buggies chasing their golf balls.

I’d lost the woodland now and the views opened up to Kedleston Hall. It was certainly an impressive, long building. The lakeside path brought me to the Grade I listed bridge over the lake. I walked to the centre of the bridge and got a superb view of the neoclassical style fishing pavilion/boathouse further along the lake. I’d take a closer look at that later on in the walk. That was the Long Walk completed; I would now start the Wilderness Walk.

Wilderness Walk

I crossed the bridge and started walking along the lakeside. Whereas the Long Walk had been a purpose made trail, the Wilderness Walk was more basic. Some cows and calves had congregated around one of the gates and I thought I might be in for a spot of trouble, but they let me pass without a second look. There were three other weirs along this stretch. On one of them I could see some steelwork which I expect had supported some sort of footbridge across the weir at some point in history.    

I did go beyond the third weir, but turned around when I reached a road and some houses. I retraced my steps back to the woodland and followed the Wilderness Walk deeper into the trees, away from the lake. The trail was pleasant enough and meandered through the trees until it reached a road. I crossed it and went past a Saw Mill (as labelled on the OS map). The trail then went around the perimeter of a large open area. The mushrooms seemed to be doing pretty well around there. The trail brought me to the road that I’d driven along this morning as I’d entered the Estate and I followed this back to the bridge. 

Lakeside Walk

I crossed the bridge and then followed the Lakeside Walk along the lake to the fishing pavilion/boathouse. It was an impressive little building. Most distinctive were two carved stone roundels of putti riding sea monsters. Obviously the seafarers at the boathouse had some tall tales to tell about their watery experiences. I followed the Lakeside Walk up to the third weir and then retraced my steps back to the bridge. 

That was all the official walks done and so I started plodding up the drive towards the Hall. It was midday and time to get some grub at the restaurant/café. It had been a pleasant walk around the Estate. There had been plenty of birds to look at on the lake. There were also some fine views of the Hall and lakes. The Wilderness Walk wasn’t quite a wilderness in a ‘Cairngorm’ sense, but it did add a nice variety to the walk. Stretching my legs had set me up for a potter around the Hall this afternoon (see NT - Kedleston Hall).