English Heritage and National Trust gardens in the North East: a season-by-season guide

Before you set off

Opening days, times and prices change by season, and some gardens close or open only partly in winter. Check each garden's own page before you travel. National Trust and English Heritage members get in free to their own properties; independent gardens charge separately.

Late winter: snowdrops and bare bones

Howick Hall Gardens and Arboretum, near the Northumberland coast, is known for its snowdrops, and the arboretum's trees show their shapes best before the leaves come. Winter is also a good time to appreciate the structure of a garden: the walls, paths and hedges that hold everything else together.

Some private gardens open for single days under the National Garden Scheme, including early-season openings. Its listings for Tyne and Wear and Northumberland are worth checking through the year.

Spring: blossom, bulbs and rhododendrons

The Alnwick Garden is a good spring outing, with blossom and the large water features as a centrepiece. In late spring, Cragside near Rothbury is famous for rhododendrons across its hillside estate, and its rock garden is at its best.

In County Durham, Crook Hall Gardens sits within walking distance of the city centre and suits a shorter visit combined with the cathedral.

Summer: walled gardens and borders

Summer belongs to the walled gardens. The one at Wallington, near Cambo, is a long-standing favourite. At Raby Castle near Staindrop, the walled gardens were redesigned and reopened in 2024. On Holy Island, the small garden at Lindisfarne Castle was designed by Gertrude Jekyll; the island is reached by a tidal causeway, so plan around the safe crossing times.

Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, cared for by English Heritage, is known for its quarry garden, a sheltered world of its own. In Teesside, Ormesby Hall has gardens to explore on the edge of Middlesbrough.

Smaller and more unusual, Dilston Physic Garden near Corbridge grows medicinal and herbal plants.

Autumn: woods and long walks

Gibside, in the Derwent valley near Rowlands Gill, has a walled garden and miles of woodland paths that are at their best as the leaves turn. The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle pairs a museum visit with its park and formal gardens, useful if the weather turns.

Close to the coast, Seaton Delaval Hall shows what will grow within reach of salt winds, and Washington Old Hall is an easy trip from Sunderland and Gateshead.

Looking at the lawns

Big gardens are a good place to see how grass copes with a northern year: wear on the paths in summer, moss in the shade, and how quickly a lawn recovers once the weather warms. If you come home wanting a better lawn of your own, start with timing. Our guide to when to lay turf in the North East explains why early autumn is often the best month to begin.