Photo: Ad Meskens / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsAbbotsford House
Walter Scott's baronial fantasy on the Tweed, crammed with relics — Rob Roy's purse, Napoleon's blotter, 9,000 books.
Gardens & stately homes to visit
A great garden is a day out that changes with the season — the same place is a different visit in April and October. Add a grand house to walk round and a tearoom to finish, and you've the makings of a properly civilised day.
From formal parterres and arboretums to the stately homes they surround, these are the places for a slower, greener day out. Choose your origin and range, and we'll show the gardens and houses within reach.
Find gardens & stately days out near you →
Popular gardens & stately homes
Photo: Ad Meskens / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Andy Hawkins / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia CommonsAberdour Castle & Gardens
Scotland's oldest standing castle, terraced gardens, and the Silver Sands along the Fife Coastal Path.
Photo: Unknown / Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsAntrim Castle Gardens
400-year-old Anglo-Dutch water gardens, restored canals and parterres — free, and quietly excellent.
Photo: Egjoni98 / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsArundel Castle
The Duke of Norfolk's magnificent pile above the Arun — the Collector Earl's Garden alone is worth the ticket.
Photo: Pit-yacker / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsAuckland Palace
The Prince Bishops' palace reborn: Zurbarán's Jacob cycle, a faith museum, and Spanish gallery — pair with Kynren.
Audley End House
A Jacobean palace with working Victorian service wing and stables — the kitchen dresser alone repays the trip.
Photo: Wehha / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsBelton House
The perfect English country house, they say — with formal gardens and the NT's biggest adventure playground.
Photo: Eusebius / CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsBlair Castle
The white castle of the Atholl Highlanders — Britain's only private army — with a Hercules garden and red deer park.
Photo: Carson Vara on UnsplashBlenheim Palace
Churchill's birthplace and Britain's only non-royal palace, in a Capability Brown park built to awe.
Photo: K. Mitch Hodge on UnsplashBotanic Gardens, Belfast
The curvilinear Palm House and the humid Tropical Ravine, free, beside the Ulster Museum.
Photo: Anthony Masi / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia CommonsBurghley House
The greatest Elizabethan house in England, beside honey-stoned Stamford — Heaven Room excess and the Horse Trials park.
Photo: Unknown / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia CommonsBurrell Collection
One magpie shipowner's 9,000 treasures — Degas to medieval doorways — in a woodland gallery in Pollok Park.
That’s 12 of 263 gardens & stately days out in our guide. See them all matched to your location →