Calke Abbey

Calke Abbey is the National Trust's 'un-stately home', a baroque mansion near Ticknall where the Harpur Crewe family lived for 12 generations and rarely threw anything away, so when the Trust took it on it chose to keep the peeling paintwork and abandoned rooms rather than restore them. Highlights include the state bed with its Chinese silk hangings, hidden for over 200 years, a walled garden with a rare auricula theatre and domed orangery, the tunnels, and 600 acres of parkland and National Nature Reserve with fallow deer and the ancient oak called the Old Man of Calke. Dogs can roam the parkland under close control and enter the gardens and stableyards on a short lead. Reviewers love the atmosphere, the friendly volunteers, the tunnels and the church on the hill. Tips from regulars: do the house first, since it gets busy later in the day, allow at least three hours, and use the flat Tramway Trail from Calke Explore for easy walking or cycling.