Entertainment in Matlock

Spread over 555 sq miles, The Peak District is England’s first national park and a sprawling landscape full of limestone valleys, beautifully barren moorland, epic gorges, natural lakes, ancient villages and county towns. Whether you want to enjoy the views and landscape during a country drive or get stuck into some of the best hiking and biking trails in the country, you are perfectly placed in Matlock on the edge of the Peak District. If you’re exploring for the day, try and include Edale and Kinder Scout, the highest point of the Peak District with a stop off at the Original Bakewell Pudding Shop in Bakewell. As well as plenty of walking, biking and hiking trails, you can also go caving, horse riding, climbing or take part in some watersports – or take a more leisurely approach and visit some of the finest country estates in the UK including Chatsworth House which is just a few miles from our Chesterfield West hotel.

A theme park aimed at children aged two to 13, Gulliver’s Kingdom is a brilliant family day out just a couple of miles from our Matlock hotel. With high-adrenaline rides including the log flume, The Switchback roller-coaster and the Crazy Barrel Ride, bigger kids will be happily screaming all day as they take on combined drops of 629ft. The theme park also has areas designed to thrill children under five, such as Toy Land, The Western World and the Pirates Play area. Now a series of theme parks across the UK with Gulliver’s World in Warrington and Gulliver’s Land in Milton Keynes, the original Matlock theme park opened in 1978 and has undergone regular updates including the addition of the Lost Kingdom dinosaur area in 2018. The park opens from Easter through the summer and then only during the weekends in September and October until Halloween. There are a range of cafés and shops on site as well as regular toilets, baby changing facilities, lockers and cash machines.

An impressive Edwardian building dating back to 1910, The Grand Pavilion is a community-run theatre, music and entertainment venue located a short walk from The Heights of Abraham in Matlock Bath. As well as hosting regular events including photography exhibitions, plays, film nights, music tribute nights, stand up comedy and more, The Grand Pavilion is also home to the Restoration Cafe where you can grab a snack, lunch, hot drink or ice cream. Alongside that, the space is also home to the Peak District Lead Mining Museum with thousands of items and exhibits, while just over the road is the Temple Mine, a working 1920s lead and fluorspar mine.