Chatsworth Hunting Tower stands on the escarpment 400 feet above Chatsworth House, on the edge of Stand Wood. There are panoramic views over Capability Brown’s magnificent Park. This unique and fascinating building was completed c.1582 for Bess of Hardwick, ancestress of the Dukes of Devonshire, to designs by the famous Elizabethan architect Robert Smythson.

The 16th century Chatsworth Hunting Tower may have been a banqueting house or summerhouse and, as its name implies, it was also used by the ladies to watch the hounds working when hunting in the park below. In modern times it was lived in by members of the Estate staff and most recently by the Duke’s nephew.