Visiting historic houses, castles, and gardens
One of the best things about the UK is its superb selection of historic places to visit. Almost anywhere you go in the British Isles, you'll find stunning stately homes, sumptuous gardens, and crumbling castles you can wander round at your leisure. If this is your idea of heaven, why not organize an entire holiday around historic houses and gardens? It's much easier than you might think. Here are some of our top tips.
Photo: Lanhydrock, a delightful National Trust house and garden in mid-Cornwall. It's easily accessible by public transport from Bodmin Parkway station.
Pick your region
You don't want to spend your entire holiday travelling, so pick yourself a part of the country where there's lots to see and do within easy reach. Then simply find yourself somewhere to stay that's bang in the middle of all the places to want to go. It really is that simple. You don't have to be too ambitious. Focus on maybe a single county (like Dorset), a region (like south-west Cornwall), or an area where there are two or three places you absolutely must see (a couple of gardens or houses that top your list). Don't try to cram too much in. It's far better to visit one place each day or one place every two days than rush round two places a day.
Photo: Most of the UK's wonderful historic houses have equally magnificent gardens. Here are the world-famous rose gardens at Mottisfont Abbey, a National Trust property near Romsey, Hampshire, pictured at the height of their glory in June.
Getting around
Transport is the key to a holiday like this. If you have a car, it's
all easy enough. If you're trying to visit houses and gardens by public
transport, things will be more of a challenge—but don't let that put
you off! You might be surprised just how accessible a lot of houses and
gardens are by train, by
bus, or on foot. Walking through stunning countryside rather than
hurtling in at break-neck speed in a car can add considerably to the
enjoyment. If you're travelling by car, you should be able to stay at
the same place for your entire holiday and simply drive out to each
location in turn. If you're using public transport, you may want to try
to visiting properties in sequence along a pre-planned route, staying
at different accommodation each night. This is one way around the
problem of getting back home to a central venue each night. Far from
being a drawback, you can actually turn it into a wonderful adventure.
Helpfully, the National
Trust now takes a much more proactive attitude to green travel and
publishes public transport travelling details for most of its
properties in its handbook and on its website. Britain's Traveline public information
service is likely to be useful to you too, so key its number (0871 200
22 33) into your cellphone (mobile phone) now before you forget.
Photo: Calke Abbey, a National Trust house in Derbyshire, is very carefully preserved in a state of decay to illustrate the decline of the English country house.
Ready-made guides
Many of the best-loved homes and gardens in England, Wales, and
Northern Ireland are owned by the National Trust, English Heritage, and
their equivalents in Scotland and Ireland. You'll find the National Trust
handbook (available in print and on its website) an invaluable starting
point, not least because it has a huge map of all the attractions you
can visit. A colourful book called Hudson's
("the bible of the stately home visitor") also lists all the privately
owned houses, gardens, and other attractions in the UK and is another
great investment if you like visiting these sorts of places. Don't
forget the National Garden Scheme,
under which many interesting private homes open for charity each year
(details are published in little yellow booklets available for each
county or bound into a large book for the whole UK), and The Landmark Trust, which
offers you the opportunity to stay in fabulous historic buildings.
Castles
If it's castles you're after, you might want to consider a trip to Wales or Scotland. Wales has arguably the best selection of intact and ruined castles in the UK, while Scotland's castles—especially those in the Highlands—feel like they've stepped straight from the pages of Macbeth!
Photo: The Parterre garden at Mottisfont Abbey near Romsey, Hampshire.
The cost
If you're trying to budget for a holiday like this, bear in mind that the cost of visiting historic houses and gardens can be expensive. All those admission fees, lunches, and afternoon teas quickly mount up and can easily add 50 per cent to the cost of your accommodation. It makes sense to join the National Trust if you're planning to visit lots of their properties. Although membership isn't cheap, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your money is helping to preserve the UK's heritage for future generations and stopping great houses from being turned into hotels—and that's something you can't really put a price on.
Make it easy
Photo: The famous Palladian bridge in Prior Park, a landscape garden in a href="bath.html">Bath, opened to the public by the National Trust.
Some regions have made it simple for people who like visiting houses and gardens. In Cornwall, for example, where there's a peerless collection of gardens to visit, the Cornish Tourist Board has compiled a superb leaflet called Cornwall: Gardens Guide listing no fewer than 76 houses and gardens (see also the Gardens of Cornwall website).
Other attractions
It's easy enough to combine a houses and gardens holiday with other activity holidays. It's not so hard to cycle from house to house or to camp out near the places you want to visit. You could arrange all the places you want to visit in a sequence and walk from one to the next each day, staying at a simple B&B or guesthouse en-route.
Coming from overseas
If you're visiting the UK from overseas, and maybe staying in London, visiting historic houses and gardens is a little more difficult. All the interesting rural places are obviously some distance from the urban capital and it's not really feasible to go to Cornish gardens if London is your travelling base. But don't let that put you off! Many places in the south and south-east are easily reachable by train from London in an hour or two. Superb National Trust properties like Cliveden, Knole, Petworth, Sissinghurst, Stowe, and Waddesdon Manor are all close to London. And, of course, London has many historic attractions of a very different kind! See these day-trips as an adventure, value the journey as much as the destination, and you can't really go wrong, wherever you go—and however you choose to get there.
Photo: Sherborne "new" Castle sits in a glorious deer park in rolling Dorset countryside.
Some helpful links
- Stateley Homes: A great guide to historic houses and gardens.
- British Castles, Stately Homes and Houses: A very useful map of houses and gardens across the UK.
