Discover Shottle: History, Parks and Railway

Shottle combines traces of history with a strong railway connection. Anyone looking for a holiday destination with a history of its own and various ways to explore it will find points of interest here ranging from a fortified site and former parkland to the reopened Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. This allows you to focus your trip either more on culture or more on railway and local history.

Historical traces around The Mottes

One of the most prominent historical references is The Mottes. The site is protected as Scheduled Monument 1011623 and is designated as “Moated Site north of Dannah Farm”. It is a fortified site with an approximately square plateau that is about 1.2 metres high. The moat is between 4.5 and 6 metres wide. These specific measurements give the historic site a tangible form without reducing it to merely a date.

Its former function also remains an intriguing part of its history: The Mottes may have served as a hunting lodge or deer enclosure within the Duffield Frith. For travellers interested in medieval sites, landscape history and historical uses, this connection offers a distinctive thematic way to explore Shottle.

Park history and a building from 1841

Shottle’s history also extends into the development of former parklands. Shottle Park was laid out by the reign of Edward I at the latest and existed until the 17th century. A separate historical size is recorded for Shothell Park: in 1540, it had a circumference of seven miles. Since both names are mentioned separately in the historical information, it is worth viewing the park history as an independent focus alongside The Mottes.

Shottle Hall dates from 1841 and adds a considerably later historical trace to this picture. Together with The Mottes and the information about Shottle Park and Shothell Park, this creates a destination where different eras stand side by side. If you are travelling with different interests, you can give these topics different weight depending on the focus of your trip planning.

Railway connection and practical choice of location

Shottle has its own station, called Shottle. The railway line running through Shottle was reopened for passenger services as the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. This makes railway history one of the distinct experiences you can take into account when choosing the focus of your holiday. Shottle station has no dedicated parking. If you include the station in your plans and are travelling by car, you should take this circumstance into account when choosing your accommodation and organising your days.

When looking for a holiday apartment in Shottle, you can therefore first decide which aspect of the village is most important to you: historic sites and park history, the local history surrounding Shottle Hall or the railway connection.

Compare more destinations

For comparison with other destinations, you can also view Long Eaton, Morley, Whatstandwell, Ripley, Bolsover, Scarcliffe, Marston and Stoney Middleton.

To the higher-level travel overview: Derbyshire.