5 Gorgeous Gardens In Buckinghamshire
As this lush county has some of the finest green spaces in England, it’s no surprise that there are lots of fabulous gardens to visit in Buckinghamshire. Fancy wending your way through flower-filled formal displays, pausing in pretty orchards or being inspired by well-stocked kitchen gardens? They’re all here in our list of the 5 best gardens to visit in Buckinghamshire.
If you’d really like to maximise your outdoor time, how about booking a stay at a campsite or glampsite in the area? Pitchup has a huge range of choice, from simple farm sites through to stylish glamping tents with a luxurious hot tub.
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Chenies Manor House
is a Tudor house with five acres of gardens, including a water garden, a physic garden, kitchen garden, topiary displays and extensive herbaceous borders. There are two mazes to explore here too, including one that was designed as part of a newspaper competition in the early 1990s.
A combined ticket gives you access to both the house and the gardens, which are open Mondays and Tuesdays from April to November. There’s something to see in all seasons here – in spring Chenies House welcomes visitors to admire their tulip displays, while in summer the show gardens are bursting with dahlias, salvias, cosmos and many more annuals.
Waddesdon Manor
When Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild commissioned Waddesdon Manor in the 1880s, French style was all the rage among the English upper classes. As a result, the centrepiece of this estate is a fabulous turreted château in the French Renaissance style. The gardens here sweep down from the house’s Fountain Terrace, with manicured lawns leading the eye to views over distant countryside framed by flowering horse chestnuts that come alive in a blaze of pink and white in spring. Everything is on a truly grand scale here – the formal parterre alone is planted with 20,000 bedding plants that change with the seasons.
There’s a lot of variety to explore here: the estate is home to rose gardens, a rock garden, a water garden and a wildflower valley as well as trails through both exotic and native trees. And, despite all the elegance, it’s also one of the area’s best gardens to visit with kids – family activities include a woodland playground and bug hunts.
The Lyde Garden
Something a little more secret, sunken and possibly sacred is the Lyde Garden, not far from Aylesbury. Starting as a wilderness suffering from elm disease, the garden here was extensively developed from the 1950s by the late Lord Carrington, once Foreign Secretary in the government of Margaret Thatcher.
The gardens are next to the 12th-century Holy Trinity Church in the village of Bledlow opposite its manor house. A visit to this green hidden gem takes in the kitchen garden, a water garden, parterres and several sculptures. The east side of the churchyard leading from the gardens overlooks a deep gully, where water from eight springs emerges on the site of a former holy well (hence the potential for this to be a sacred space). The surrounding area has been developed with walkways, bridges and a colonnade for a stroll around the sunken garden.
Hughenden Manor Garden
Peaceful Hughenden Manor, surrounded by gorgeous views of the Chilterns, was the home of British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. While her husband was busy in parliament, Disraeli’s wife Mary Anne dedicated herself to the gardens at their country retreat. The Victorian landscape garden has been restored by the National Trust in recent decades, adding walking trails, a play area and a café as well as bringing the Italianate gardens back to their original glory.
The south-facing walled garden is a real highlight here – using an unusual design where heat rises up to create a warmer climate, with a ‘frost gate’ at the bottom where cold air can escape. The orchard in the South Garden has been recreated to appear how it would have been in Disraeli’s day, with dozens of varieties of apple trees and several sorts of pear. The grounds of Hughenden are set in a wooded valley crossed by a chalk stream, which eventually reaches the river Wye at High Wycombe, and there are plenty of walking paths where you can take in some of this splendid scenery.
Cliveden Gardens
With 80 acres of formal gardens, parkland and ancient woodland to explore, the National Trust estate at Cliveden is a wonderful place to visit. The house itself, once well known for its upper-class parties (and for the part it played in the Profumo Affair that brought down the UK government in the 1960s) is now a luxury hotel, but National Trust-owned gardens are open to visitors, and house tours run on selected days.
Start your tour at the back of the Victorian manor house, which looks out over the dramatic main parterre, with views for miles over the River Thames. There’s also a Japanese garden here that was laid out by the 1st Viscount Astor in the 1890s, as well as a rose garden with around a thousand fragrant colourful blooms. The garden trails wind their way through herbaceous borders, yew pyramids, flowering cherries and wisterias, leading to a large lake where ghost carp glide. Cliveden’s Long Garden is quite a sight, with narrow borders that stretch past statues and impressive topiary features. For families, there’s a maze, a storybook play area and the cute Doll’s House Café.
Where else to go?
If you’d like to explore more of Buckinghamshire’s wonderful outdoor spaces, read our list of the county’s best parks to find green spaces, country parks and riverside landscapes. And if you’re up for exploring on foot, these 7 great Buckinghamshire walks should give you some inspiration. Pitchup has plenty of options for outdoor stays as well – both glamping sites and camping pitches starting from an affordable £20 per night.
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