What To Do Around Derby | Free-City-Guides.com

Derby is a compact city with lots to see and do on a short break. It’s also a great location to explore the historic attractions in the rest of Derbyshire.

Derby Museums – Derby has a range of free museums, but the best of them is the Museum of Making. It’s located in the city centre inside a former silk mill. This mill and several others which still exist in the valley of the River Derwent are now designated as a World Heritage Site because of their significance in the industrial revolution. Inside the museum, you can explore interactive exhibits about Derby’s role in manufacturing across the decades. There’s a disassembled Toyota car, a huge Rolls Royce aero engine and a decent model railway layout signifying Derby’s status as a railway city. The museum is free, as is the nearby Derby Museum and Art Gallery which has paintings by Joseph Wright on display. He was the city’s most famous artist. Also, Pickford’s House Museum is worth a look in Friar Gate. It’s set in a former family home and once inside you can see how the family used each room.

Markeaton Park – This huge park was once the estate of a stately home – Markeaton Hall. The house has now gone after falling into disrepair after WW2, but the stables and orangery remain housing a café and craft businesses. The remainder of the park is packed with things to do including children’s play zones, a boating lake, crazy golf courses, and pitch and put course, a skate park and a high-ropes facility. Near the main car park, you’ll find a building housing a really impressive model railway. When walking around the gardens, lookout for the gravestones of the family pets from when this park was owned by the Mundy family.

Derby Cathedral – This large church dates back to 943 and was dedicated as a cathedral in 1927. Inside there are notable features like the tomb of Bess of Hardwick and an attractive wrought iron screen designed by Robert Bakewell. These days though, there’s lots of attention on the outside of the cathedral as the tower is home to an active Peregrine Falcon nest. This is best viewed from Cathedral Green – the park at the back of the building. The cathedral is also often home to visiting exhibitions.

Derby Shopping – Derby is home to the huge Derbion shopping centre with lots of major brands inside. There are lots of eateries too, plus a Showcase Deluxe cinema and an adventure golf complex. Most of the shopping streets surrounding the centre have been in decline as a result of the big stores moving inside, but there are other areas worth shopping in. The Cathedral Quarter, near the cathedral, has winding streets and independent stores and Derby’s historic market Hall is currently undergoing regeneration and will be a significant destination when it reopens.

Darley Abbey Mills – The mill complex in the suburb of Darley Abbey has restaurants, a riverside walk and even a winery. This is essentially a warehouse where the wines are made from grapes grown elsewhere, but they are decent quality. You can take a tour here which includes wine tasting and an introduction to the basics of wine making. We enjoyed our afternoon here and thought the wine maker – Kieran – was a great host and raconteur. We even bought a number of wines to drink at home afterwards.

Moorways Water Park – This swimming complex had a complete rebuild in 2022 and now boasts a 50m swimming pool, a leisure pool with flumes and slides and a wave maker too. The complex also has two soft play centres for younger children, fitness studios a sauna and a steam room. Outside there’s an athletics track and artificial football pitches. It’s been renamed as a ‘sports village’ and the modern facilities are a world away from the Moorways we visited in the past. It’s a huge improvement!

Adventure Golf – There are a number of ‘crazy golf’ courses around Derby, but this one is the biggest and best. Paradise Island is inside the Derbion shopping centre and has two 18 hole gold courses, one themed around the sea and one around an Aladdin-style market. There’s a discount for playing both courses and it will keep you occupied for about 1-2 hours depending on how busy the courses are. It’s all done very well, but it is quite expensive. If you’re looking for a cheaper option and the weather is good, head to Markeaton Park to play the courses there.

GETTING AROUND DERBY

Derby is a compact city and the city centre is easy to walk around. To get to places outside the city centre like Markeaton Park, there are regular bus services from Derby bus station in the Morledge.