Stourhead
The finest example of 18th-century English landscape gardening, with a lakeside Pantheon, a Temple of Apollo and a stone bridge reflected in the water
Stourhead is a landscape garden created in the 18th century by the banker Henry Hoare II, widely regarded as the pinnacle of the English natural landscape garden. The lakeside path circles about 3 km and passes, in turn, a Palladian stone bridge, a Pantheon modelled on the one in Rome, the Temple of Apollo, a grotto and a Gothic cottage. Each vista is carefully composed, like a painting.
The garden is most beautiful in autumn, when red and yellow leaves are reflected in the lake, and in spring, when rhododendrons are in bloom. The mansion house is also open to visitors. The garden is managed by the National Trust. Tickets cost about £20, and the house is about 50 minutes' drive from Bath.
Opening hours
Gardens about 09:00–17:00 (open year-round)
Nearby sights
- Prior Park Landscape Garden
- Sally Lunn's Historic Eating House
- Thermae Bath Spa
- Roman Baths
- Bath Abbey
- Pulteney Bridge
- Jane Austen Centre
- Holburne Museum