Camping at Clumber Park - July 2013

I'll lay my cards on the table: I'm not a natural camper. I've always thought that camping was rather uncomfortable, inconvenient and, often smelly and, to be fair, previous camping expeditions have, largely, supported this premise. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that, a few weeks ago, my other half and I went to camp at Clumber Park  in Nottinghamshire for the weekend.

Clumber Park is lovely. There used to b a stately home in the middle of a large expanse of parkland but the house was demolished in 1938 and the park is now run by the National Trust. I've always loved visiting and walking around the Pleasure Grounds, going on trails with my children around the Walled Kitchen Garden, or exploring further field on the other side of the large Clumber Lake. It really is beautiful and, if you've never been, you really should visit.

I booked the campsite in advance; two nights, no electric hook-up (OMG! No electricity - and Clumber is notoriously poor when it comes to phone signal and has no public WIFI!). There are two campsites: the National Trust campsite and a Camping & Caravanning Club one. We were staying at the National Trust one.

Erecting the tent didn't take long - I've learnt my lesson from previous camping expeditions that my best policy is to keep quiet and follow the instructions of those who know what they're doing (and as someone who is very colour blind I always struggle with the colour coding of tent poles...).

The weather was amazing; hot and sunny (except for a sudden loud, but short-lived, thunderstorm and shower on the Saturday afternoon).

In fact, it was actually too hot - at one point we escaped to Starbucks at Worksop (just a couple of miles away on the A57) to use their free WIFI and to cool off in their air conditioning.

The campsite was clean and tidy and run by the most lovely and helpful couple who seemed to have thought of everything that a camper might need. They said:

     "We know what we like when we going camping, so we try to do the same here."

Other campsites should take note of that!


The toilets were clean and each cubicle had a bunch of sweetpeas sitting on the cistern. The showers were reliable, clean and the temperature could be controlled. The campsite was busy but there was still plenty of space and nobody was too close.


The provision for youngsters was great; giant Jenga blocks and Connect 4 in wheelie bins that could be taken around the site and the pods looked a lot of fun and were all fully booked.

The weekend was lovely, and very, very relaxing. Just what was needed.

We explored the Discovery Centre, considered bike hire (but opted to stick to walking on this visit), walked in the woods and around the lake, looked in Clumber Chapel and around the Pleasure Grounds.

In the Discovery Centre can find out about all the wildlife that can be found throughout the parkland at Clumber and even look at things like insect legs and wings through a microscope! And there's a short film explaining the history of the park.









Clumber Chapel is still used for a number of services and is a wonderful place of calm and quiet in the Pleasure Grounds.

In the Walled Kitchen Garden, which has an amazing variety of plants growing outside and in the glasshouse including the world's largest collection of rhubarb (121 varieties and counting...), we even met both Mr. Moffat and Gertrude (the superstar of the Clumber Twitterverse!). (And yes, you can follow Gertrude on Twitter!!!)

  Mr Moffat and Gertrude
Follow Gertrude on Twitter: @GertrudeClumber
We will definitely return to Clumber at some point to camp again, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet and relaxed time.