Callow Top Holiday Park
Callow Top is a family-run touring, motorhome and camping park on the White Peak edge of the Peak District, just outside Ashbourne in Derbyshire, with four self-catering apartments and cottages on site. The flat, traffic-free Tissington Trail joins it at the boundary, and there's an outdoor pool, a pub, a games room, a shop and a coarse fishing lake spread across the grounds. It suits families who want to camp or self-cater with plenty on site and the Peak District on the doorstep.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who the park suits, what's on site and what to skim first.
Callow Top is one of the busier, more amenity-dense family parks around Ashbourne, and that's the trade you make here. You get an outdoor pool, an enclosed playground, a games room, a shop and a pub on site, a coarse fishing lake down the drive and the flat Tissington Trail joining at the boundary, so children can be kept busy without leaving the park. What you don't get is a childcare or entertainment programme, and the pool and the pub both run to seasonal dates rather than being there all year. You'll get the most from it if you want to camp, tour or take a self-catering break with things to do on the doorstep, and you're travelling in the warmer half of the year.
Best for
You want to camp, tour or take a self-catering break with an outdoor pool, a pub, a games room, a shop and a fishing lake on site and the Peak District a short drive away.
Maybe not for
You're travelling outside May to September and want a swim, you need indoor wet-weather facilities or you want a childcare or entertainment programme.
Best ages
Any age. Under-4s stay free on a pitch, the enclosed playground and pool suit young children and the flat Tissington Trail works with a buggy or a first bike.
What stands out
Direct access to the traffic-free Tissington Trail, a coarse fishing lake with its own nature reserve and quiet nights thanks to an enforced 10.30pm quiet time.
What to check
The pool is outdoor and open 1 May to 27 September only, day and evening visitors are strictly not allowed and the Callow Inn's hours are seasonal.
Where is it?
Buxton Road, Sandybrook, just outside Ashbourne in the Derbyshire Peak District, about 20 minutes from Alton Towers.
Quick facts for families
What the park is like
Where it sits, how the site is laid out and the house rules that shape a family stay.
Callow Top is a working touring, motorhome and camping park with four self-catering apartments and cottages on site, run by the same family for more than 40 years. It sits on elevated countryside on the southern, White Peak edge of the Peak District, just outside Ashbourne, which you can walk into in about 20 minutes along the Tissington Trail. The postcode for a satnav is DE6 2AQ. For more on the surrounding area, see our Peak District guide.
The social hub of the site sits together around reception, the shop, The Callow Inn, Arnold's games room, the swimming and paddling pool and a central village green that the four self-catering apartments and cottages look over. The pitches themselves spread across several named fields. Field 2's hardstanding pitches are separated by conifer hedges for a bit of privacy, while Fields 3 and 5 are open, and there are camping fields beyond. It has around 200 pitches, which is worth knowing if you're weighing a big, lively park against a smaller, quieter one.
The main areas and paths are hard-surfaced and mostly level, so a buggy rolls fine around the hub, the pool, the shop and the Inn and along the flat Tissington Trail once you're on it. The grass camping fields are a different matter: they're uneven and turn soft in wet weather, and a minority of reviews mention drainage on some pitches after heavy rain. The fishing lake sits a quarter of a mile down the drive, kept away from the pitches, with its own nature reserve developed with the Environment Agency.
A few house rules shape how a family stay feels here. There's a 10.30pm quiet time, which reviewers credit for peaceful nights even at a busy park, and the entrance is barrier-controlled. Day and evening visitors to guests are strictly not permitted, so relatives or friends can't pop in to see you during your stay, which is worth knowing if you were counting on it. On-site lighting is kept deliberately low so you can see the stars, so pack a torch for moving around after dark. The park has held a David Bellamy Conservation Award and a place in the Practical Caravan Top 100 in past years.
Where you stay, from pitches to cottages
The touring and camping pitches, the four self-catering units and which suit a family with a baby or toddler.
Most guests here are on a pitch, either bringing a caravan or motorhome or camping. The table below is the pitch range at a glance; the notes after it cover the shared facilities and who can share a pitch.
| Pitch type | Surface | Size and party | Electric hook-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardstanding (caravan or motorhome) | Hardstanding | Fields 2, 3 and 5; Field 2 is hedge-separated for privacy, 3 and 5 are open. Larger pitches for motorhomes up to 30ft, twin-axle caravans or bedroom annexes on request. | Yes (amperage varies, see below) |
| Tent pitch | Grass | About 59ft by 30ft (18m by 9m); larger tents taken on request. | No, bar one grass pitch with a hook-up |
| Cyclepacker pitch | Grass | Two guests arriving by bicycle only, a 1 to 2 man tent, no car. | No |
Electric supply is the one detail worth confirming when you book. The park's own FAQ says most pitches are 16 amp and some are 10 amp, while its caravan and touring page states 10 amp; the two pages differ, so if your equipment needs a specific amperage, check it at booking rather than assuming.
All pitches share the same facilities: three toilet blocks, two of them with showers, coin-operated hairdryers and styling sockets, shaver points, a disabled washroom on a RADAR key, a pot-washing area, chemical, grey-water and motorhome waste points and a laundry room with a coin washer and dryer and ironing. Reviews rate the blocks clean, though the shower experience comes up as mixed, warm and good for some visitors and basic or cool for others.
A standard pitch takes one family, meaning two parents plus children under 16 up to a maximum of six people, or two couples; larger parties need extra pitches. Adult-only bookings are for couples aged 21 and over, and unaccompanied under-21s aren't accepted. Under-4s stay free, and children aged 4 to 16 are charged a small nightly rate on top of the pitch. Pitch prices run per night for two people and a car, banded from low season up to peak, with extras for an awning, a dog, an extra adult or a second car, plus longer minimum stays over bank holidays; the park's own site has the current rates. A deposit is payable when you book, and the park asks for full payment upfront on some peak dates.
Four self-catering unitsThe apartments and cottages
If you'd rather not camp, four self-catering units sit in the heart of the park, above and beside The Callow Inn and around the village green. Two are apartments and two are converted-barn cottages. No floor areas are published for any of them, so the table describes them by bedrooms and how many they sleep.
| Unit | Sleeps | Layout | The building |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hartington Apartment | 4 | Double bedroom with an ensuite toilet, plus a twin bedroom and a family bathroom. | First floor above The Callow Inn, up external stone steps, overlooking the village green; parking about 75m away. |
| Okeover Apartment | 4 | Double bedroom, twin bedroom and a family bathroom. | First floor above the Inn, up stairs, with a private enclosed yard; one or two deep internal steps may not suit anyone with mobility issues. |
| Ashbourne Cottage | 5 | Main bedroom with a double and an extra single, plus a bunk room (top bunk for children only) and a bathroom. | A converted barn with an oak-beamed sitting room and a private yard; semi-detached with Dovedale Cottage. |
| Dovedale Cottage | 5 | Main double bedroom, a single bedroom and a double sofa bed in the living room, plus a bathroom. | A converted barn with a view over the village green; semi-detached with Ashbourne Cottage. |
The two apartments, Hartington and Okeover, each sleep four and sit on the first floor above the Inn, so both involve stairs. The two cottages, Ashbourne and Dovedale, are semi-detached converted barns that each sleep five. In Ashbourne Cottage the bunk room's top bunk is for children only, and both cottages have restricted height over the bath shower, worth flagging if a taller adult will be bathing a toddler.
All four units come with their own WiFi, a fitted kitchen with an oven, fridge-freezer and microwave, a Freeview TV and a washing machine but no dryer. Linen is provided, but you bring your own towels, and no pets are allowed except assistance dogs. Self-catering guests get full use of the campsite facilities, and it's these units, not the pitches, that get a free travel cot, high chair and stairgate on request.
Short breaks in the units run Friday to Monday (3 nights) or Monday to Friday (4 nights). There are no short breaks during the school summer holidays, 24 July to 3 September 2026, and only monthly-length stays are accepted from 9 November 2025 to 27 March 2026, so short breaks effectively pause over that stretch and resume in late March. Check-in and out differ by unit: the cottages check in at 3pm and out at 11am, the apartments in at 2pm and out at 10am. Weekly rates are banded across the year, with short and mid-week breaks available; the park's own site carries the current prices.
Food, drink and the shop
The pub, the games-room bar and the on-site shop, plus where else you can eat.
The park's pub is The Callow Inn, a separate building at the hub of the site. It serves a pizza and burger menu with vegan and gluten-free options, food runs until 8.30pm when it's open, there's a beer garden, dogs on leads are welcome inside and it pours its own branded house ale. Reviews call the food limited in choice and, for what it is, on the pricey side, though several also rate it as an easy option after a day out.
The Inn's hours are seasonal and change several times across the year. Expect weekend-only openings through much of spring, daily openings of roughly 1pm to 10pm across the main summer weeks from mid-July to the end of August, then a taper back to weekends only from September, with some days closed outside the peak. It's the sort of thing to check for your exact dates rather than assume the pub is always open.
Arnold's is the games room and bar, not another restaurant, with pool tables at a pound a game, table tennis, a bar and a free WiFi hotspot. Alongside it, the on-site shop, Camping Shop Ashbourne, covers milk, bread, groceries, ice, snacks, drinks, toys, toiletries, basic medicines and self-service hot drinks, plus an extensive range of caravan and camping spares. It opens Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 8.30am to 7pm and Sunday 8.30am to 5pm. There are no other cafés or restaurants on the park itself; the nearest are in Ashbourne, a 20-minute walk away, which has independent shops, restaurants, cafés and pubs.
One thing to plan for on a pitch is connectivity. There's no site-wide WiFi for camping and touring guests, only the hotspots in the Inn and Arnold's and the mobile signal is patchy. The four self-catering units are the exception, each with its own private WiFi.
The pool
There's one outdoor heated swimming pool and a separate outdoor heated paddling pool, both heated to 27°C and set in a fully enclosed area. Swimming is free and there's no need to book a slot, and the shop sells pool toys, goggles and swimwear. Seating is picnic-bench style rather than sun loungers, which one detailed review flags as a limitation. Under-15s must be supervised by an adult at all times, and dogs aren't allowed in the pool area.
The key thing to weigh is the season. The pool is open 1 May to 27 September 2026 only, so a family who wants to swim needs to travel within that window. There's no indoor pool, no splash pad or water-play feature, no adults-only pool and no slide, so it's outdoor swimming or nothing on a wet or cold day. If you've got a nervous swimmer, it's worth checking the pool depth with the park before you book. Despite what a couple of generic listings claim, the pool is outdoor and seasonal, not indoor. As a small extra, the pools are heated by a ground-source heat pump, part of the park's own solar and green-energy programme.
Babies and toddlers
This is a self-catering and camping holiday, not a managed resort, so there's no crèche, kids' club, babysitting or childcare service and no entertainment programme. Parents supervise their own children throughout, and the official FAQ is explicit that there's no organised children's programme either.
There's one enclosed playground with a height restriction on it. Reviews say it's popular and, at busy times, can be dominated by older children rather than feeling toddler-scaled, which is a fair balance against the many families who rate it highly.
Some baby kit is available to everyone, campers and tourers included. You can borrow a baby bath from reception for a small refundable deposit, there's baby changing in the main-block toilets, two on-site freezers let you freeze ice packs or chill formula and reception will keep medicine cold for guests who need it. Separately, a free travel cot, high chair and stairgate are provided on request in the four self-catering units only. Pitch guests should plan to bring their own, since that offer doesn't extend to them.
Things to do
What fills a family day on the park, and the trail and activities that start at the gate.
There's a fair amount to fill a day without leaving the park. Alongside the seasonal pool and the enclosed playground, there's a field for ball games with football goalposts, cricket nets and a volleyball court, Arnold's games room, a secure dog-exercise field and the coarse fishing lake down the drive.
The fishing lake is a draw in its own right, stocked with rudd, roach, tench, perch, crucian and mirror carp, with its own nature reserve alongside. It has double-width pegs suited to a parent and child fishing together, or to disabled anglers, with parking beside the water. It's day-ticket fishing, priced separately for adults, concessions and under-16s, on barbless hooks with no keep nets and fish returned straight away; there's no tackle hire, so bring your own.
The Tissington Trail is the other headline, a flat, traffic-free former railway line that joins the park less than 500 yards from the pitches. It runs 13 miles to Parsley Hay, where it meets the High Peak Trail, and it's about a 15-minute cycle or 20-minute walk into Ashbourne, so a walk or a family bike ride starts at the gate. You don't need to bring bikes: you can hire them from the Ashbourne Bike Hire Centre, about a 15-minute walk away, or have an e-bike delivered to your pitch or cottage by a local company. Other trails are within reach too, including the Manifold Trail, a circuit around Carsington Water, the flat Churnet Valley Trail near Alton Towers and the Monsal Trail about 35 minutes' drive away. Footpaths also lead straight off the site: a 20-minute stroll reaches Ashbourne, and a longer route of about 7 miles reaches Dovedale and its famous stepping stones. Reception sells Ordnance Survey maps.
The park also points guests to off-site adventure activities it doesn't run itself, from kayaking, rafting and paddleboarding to climbing, abseiling and caving, and paintball, quad biking, laser tag and archery at Wild Park about 15 minutes away, plus Go Ape and paragliding tasters. For events, there are two bonfire and fireworks weekends a year, in 2026 across 30 October to 1 November and 6 to 8 November, with the display on the Saturday evening; those aside, there's no regular evening entertainment. One correction worth making: despite a few generic listings suggesting otherwise, the park has no golf course, tennis courts or on-site archery or orienteering, so don't arrive expecting them. Ashbourne town does have a golf course, which is a separate thing.
Beyond the parkThe area and days out
Ashbourne, a 20-minute walk away, is a market town with independent shops, cafés, pubs and teashops, a golf course, a leisure centre with an indoor pool and gym, four supermarkets including a Sainsbury's and M&S Food and a weekly Thursday market, so it's the practical base for topping up or eating out. One first-hand review notes the walk in has a couple of steep hills, worth knowing if you're pushing a buggy.
Alton Towers is about 20 minutes' drive, the UK's largest theme park, with CBeebies Land for younger children and its own waterpark. Carsington Water, a reservoir a short drive away, is the nearest substantial open water, with a visitor centre, café, sailing, kayaking and paddleboarding and an 8-mile circular walk or cycle track, which matters here because the park is inland with no beach.
The wider area has plenty for a family day out: Chatsworth House with its farmyard and adventure playground, the Castleton show caverns with Blue John and the Speedwell underground boat trip, Peak Wildlife Park, and Matlock Bath with Gulliver's Kingdom and the Heights of Abraham cable cars. Crich Tramway Museum, the stately homes at Haddon, Sudbury and Kedleston, and Tissington village round it out. Callow Top sits in the same Ashbourne cluster of family parks as Sandybrook, Ashbourne Heights, Knockerdown and Rivendale, all drawing on this same catalogue of days out.
How it compares
How it stacks up against the nearby parks, what guests rate, the journey in, the weather and access.
Within the Ashbourne cluster, Callow Top is the biggest and most amenity-dense of the family parks, and the pool is what most comparisons come down to, because it's outdoor and seasonal where the others are indoor and year-round.
Sandybrook, a nearby lodge-only park, has an indoor heated pool with a toddler area and a separate toddler playroom, usable whatever the weather, all year. Callow Top is the bigger, livelier park with the pool, games room, shop and pub, but its pool is outdoor and only open 1 May to 27 September, a gap for a family visiting outside that window. Darwin Forest, a larger lodge park near Matlock, has an indoor pool and indoor soft play, a wet-weather advantage Callow Top can't match, though Callow Top is much cheaper as a touring base and closer to both Ashbourne and Alton Towers. Ashbourne Heights is the closest comparator: it has a year-round indoor pool but no restaurant, bar or entertainment, so Callow Top wins on the pub, games room, shop and fishing lake and loses on off-season pool access. If wet-weather swimming is your priority, one of the indoor-pool parks is the safer bet; if you want more on site through the summer, Callow Top has the edge.
What guests sayLoves and gripes
This is our read across guest reviews and the family-blog write-ups, the good and the less good.
What families love
- Big, level, well-spaced pitches with room for children to play.
- Clean toilet and shower blocks and a well-stocked shop.
- Friendly, helpful reception staff, named repeatedly in reviews.
- Plenty on site for children: the pool, playground, games room and fishing lake.
- Flat, traffic-free access to the Tissington Trail and an easy walk into Ashbourne.
- Quiet nights, credited to the 10.30pm quiet time.
Common gripes
- Limited pub food that several reviewers found pricey for what it is.
- Picnic benches rather than sun loungers by the pool.
- Patchy mobile signal and no site-wide WiFi on the pitches.
- Its size and popularity can feel commercial and noisy to some.
- Drainage on some pitches after heavy rain, a minority report.
- Showers rated inconsistently, warm for some, basic for others.
On the numbers, the one score we read in full is ukcampsite.co.uk, where the park sits at 8 out of 10 across several hundred reviews, with space, cleanliness, staff and child-friendly facilities the recurring strengths. TripAdvisor and Google carry their own scores too, and those shift as new reviews come in, so check the current figure on each platform before you rely on it. The park also says it has featured on regional television and radio, including ITV Central and BBC East Midlands Today.
Getting there and backGetting there and when to go
A car is the only practical way to make the most of the area, even though the park itself is walkable into Ashbourne. By road, Derby is about 15 miles (24 km), Stoke-on-Trent about 19 miles (31 km), Nottingham about 24 miles (39 km), and Birmingham and Manchester both roughly 37 to 39 miles (60 to 62 km). The nearest railway stations are Derby and Uttoxeter, as Ashbourne has none; its old line is now the trail. The nearest airport is East Midlands, about 45 minutes away, with Manchester and Birmingham both a little over an hour. Four EV charging points on site take up to 22kW, paid by a QR code on the bollard rather than through a caravan hook-up.
Public transport reaches Ashbourne but not the park gate, a 25-minute walk away. Buses from the town include the Ashbourne to Matlock 110 and 111, the 111 calling at Carsington Water, the Ashbourne to Buxton 442, which passes the end of the park's drive and can be flagged down, and a Swift service to Derby and Uttoxeter, plus the bookable, wheelchair-friendly Derbyshire Connect minibus and a seasonal open-top Peak Sightseer. With young children and luggage, though, most families drive.
Camping and touring run 27 March to 8 November 2026, and the self-catering units open all year, taking only monthly stays in the depths of winter. May and September weekdays give the best balance of decent weather and lighter crowds for young children; July and August are the warmest but the busiest and priciest, and the only stretch the Inn opens every day. Minimum stays are two nights at weekends and lengthen around bank holidays. Camping check-in is from noon with checkout at 11am; the latest arrival time is given as 8pm on one official page and 9pm on another, so check your booking confirmation for the exact cut-off. For direct questions the park is on 01335 344020 or [email protected].
The nearest full A&E is at Royal Derby Hospital, open around the clock; a nearer option for minor injuries is the urgent treatment centre at Whitworth Hospital in Matlock, open 8am to 8pm daily.
When to goWeather
Callow Top sits at valley and town elevation on the White Peak edge of the Peak District, in the same climate as Ashbourne, Bakewell and Matlock rather than the wetter, colder high moors. The figures below are for that zone, and the pool season lines up neatly with the warmest, driest months.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.5° | 1.5° | 81 mm | 13 |
| February | 7.5° | 1.5° | 71 mm | 12 |
| March | 10° | 2.5° | 61 mm | 11 |
| April | 13° | 4° | 66 mm | 10 |
| May | 16° | 7° | 61 mm | 10 |
| June | 19° | 9.5° | 80 mm | 10 |
| July | 21° | 12° | 66 mm | 10 |
| August | 20.5° | 11.5° | 72 mm | 10 |
| September | 17.5° | 9.5° | 70 mm | 10 |
| October | 13.5° | 7° | 90 mm | 13 |
| November | 9.5° | 4° | 94 mm | 14 |
| December | 7° | 2° | 96 mm | 14 |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records.
Rain is frequent all year, with around 10 wet days a month through spring and summer rising to 13 or 14 in late autumn and winter, so a wet-weather plan for days out is worth having, as it is anywhere in the Peak District. With no indoor pool or soft play on site, a wet day here means a drive to an indoor attraction rather than something under cover on the park.
Buggies and step-free accessAccessibility and buggy notes
The main areas are level and hard-surfaced, so buggies are fine around the hub, the pool, the shop and the Inn, while the grass camping fields are uneven and soft when wet. Parking is on or opposite your pitch. There are disabled toilet and shower facilities in the main block on a RADAR key and a disabled toilet in The Callow Inn, reception will refrigerate medicine and recharge mobility-scooter batteries and the fishing lake has double-width pegs and parking alongside for parent-and-child or disabled anglers.
Two things are worth knowing before you rely on them. Access to the Tissington Trail directly from the park is up fairly steep steps; for level access you drive the short distance to the Mapleton Lane car park instead. The four self-catering units aren't suitable for wheelchairs either, with both apartments reached by a flight of stairs and Okeover Apartment having one or two deep internal steps.
Questions
The things families ask most, useful links and when this guide was last updated.
Will the Callow Inn be open when we visit?
Only if your dates line up with its seasonal hours. It opens daily, roughly 1pm to 10pm, across the main summer weeks from mid-July to the end of August, runs weekend-only openings through much of spring and autumn and is closed on some days outside the peak. Check the Inn's hours for your exact week and have a plan for cooking or driving into Ashbourne on the evenings it's shut.
When can we actually use the pool?
Between 1 May and 27 September, and no other time. It's outdoor only, with no indoor pool as a fallback, so if your dates fall outside that window and swimming matters, either plan around it or look at a nearby park with a year-round indoor pool.
Do we need to bring our own travel cot?
On a pitch, yes. The free travel cot, high chair and stairgate are for the four self-catering units only, so campers and tourers bring their own. Reception can still lend a baby bath for a small deposit if you ask.
Can friends or family visit us during our stay?
No. Day and evening visitors to guests are strictly not permitted, and the entrance is barrier-controlled, so relatives can't pop in. If you're meeting people locally, arrange to see them in Ashbourne rather than on the park.
Is there any childcare or entertainment on site?
None at all, beyond two bonfire and fireworks weekends a year. There's no crèche, kids' club, babysitting or evening programme, so you plan the days yourselves; the pool, playground, games room, fishing lake and the Tissington Trail are what keep children busy.
Can we get online?
Not easily on a pitch. There's no site-wide WiFi for camping and touring guests, only hotspots in the Inn and Arnold's games room and the mobile signal is patchy. The four self-catering units are the exception, each with its own WiFi, so download anything you'll need before you arrive if you're camping.
See more Callow Top photos
Open the Callow Top photo gallery →Useful links
- Callow Top Holiday Park: the park's own site for pitches, cottages, facilities and booking.
- The Peak District with little ones: our guide to the wider area, its walks and when to go.
Last updated July 2026.
