Gardens of Scotland & Northern England

Check into our hotel in Manchester and meet your tour leader and fellow travellers at our Welcome Dinner tonight.

RHS Garden Bridgewater, nestled in Salford near Manchester, is a 154-acre horticultural masterpiece dating back to Queen Victoria. Explore the vibrant Paradise Garden with its exotic planting, the elegant Worsley Welcome Garden, and the tranquil Chinese Streamside Garden. Wander through the Kitchen Garden bursting with seasonal produce, or relax by the serene Ellesmere Lake. The Weston Walled Garden, beautifully restored, showcases intricate designs and rare plants.

Feeling inspired by this exquisite blend of horticultural heritage and innovations, we travel to Chester to check into the award-winning Hotel Chester Grosvenor in the city centre.

Free afternoon to stroll through this picturesque town on the River Dee in Cheshire, in the North West of England. Discover its 1000-year-old cathedral. Chester was founded as a Roman fortress in the 1st century and retains its extensive Roman walls and Roman amphitheatre.

We are travelling to Stoke on Trent to Trentham Gardens. Once a grand Italianate manor with Capability Brown lake, a massive Victorian parterre surrounded by parkland, the estate plunged into decline in 1870 and was abandoned in 1905. The manor was dynamited in 1911; all that remains is the porte-cochere and four lovely loggias. Finally, a ‘dream team’ of designers, Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart-Smith were engaged in 1996 to rejuvenate the garden with an imaginative and contemporary design. This is cutting edge plantsmanship; a masterpiece!

Stoke on Trent is affectionately known as ‘The Potteries’ because of its rich industrial heritage of ceramics. ‘World of Wedgwood’ is our next stop where we can admire superb craftsmanship and learn about Josiah Wedgwood who founded Wedgwood in 1759. Travel back to Chester.

We are heading to York with a stop at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire in the magnificent Peak District. This sumptuous manor is set on the River Derwent in a great park landscaped by Capability Brown. The Grand Cascade, built in 1700, tumbles down the hillside. It’s now fully restored along with the canal which reflects the south facade. We’ll stroll around the estate then we’ll visit the house, home to successive Dukes and Duchesses of Devonshire, all of whom have made contributions to the estate, as it passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family.

Travel to York this afternoon and check into the sophisticated Grand Hotel and Spa for the next three nights, located inside the mediaeval city wall, just a stone’s throw from the Minster.

Castle Howard is our destination today, remember Brideshead? We’ll explore the Walled Garden once the Kitchen Garden, rose garden, cut flower garden and potager. We’ll see the famous Atlas fountain, Mausoleum, Pyramid, Temple of the Four Winds and New River Bridge with views across the rolling Howardian Hills.

The afternoon is free for you to explore mediaeval York. Maybe walk along the City Wall which follows the line of the original Roman wall, one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world.

Harrogate is the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales and we are here to visit RHS Garden Harlow Carr, a gem of a garden… 5 stars! We’ll explore the new streamside garden and the Kitchen Garden. We’ll stroll along the flower borders, at their peak at this time and check out the woodland and the Scented Garden.

It’s a short drive into Harrogate for a look at this charming Victorian spa town, which has long been associated with a particular kind of old-fashioned Englishness. Travel back to York.

We are heading for The Lakes District today with a stop near Lancaster at Gresgarth Hall, the garden of Arabella Lennox-Boyd. Situated in the valley of the River Artle Beck, the character has been defined as the river cuts a dramatic swathe through the estate. It’s an overwhelmingly English garden with herbaceous planting, shrub roses, ‘Arts and Crafts’ topiary. It’s a masterpiece of design, the proportions are perfect. Colour themed flower borders, birch grove, serpentine walk, potager, pleached lime walk are all hallmarks of this talented garden designer who has been developing this garden for 40 years.

Afternoon visit to Levens Hall, with its unique collection of ancient and extraordinary topiary characters sculpted from box and yew. Travel through to The Lakes District to Windermere and check into the Laura Ashley Belsfield Hotel on Lake Windermere. Dinner is included at our hotel this evening.

It’s a leisurely day around Lake Windermere; visit Beatrix Potter’s 17th-century farmhouse “Hill Top” a time-capsule of her life and the inspiration of many of her tales.

The garden is lovingly maintained, faithful to her design, with all her favourite plants. We have the afternoon free, maybe take a cruise on Lake Windermere.

To Scotland today and Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries. Strongly influenced by the Victorian era, the gardens have been restored in recent times to their original splendour.

Stroll through the formal gardens, along the 183m Terrace Walk beside a magnificent stone balustrade that’s famous for growing tender climbing plants. Admire the restored Victorian glasshouses and the Heather Houses.

Travel onto Edinburgh to our hotel for the next five nights with views to Edinburgh Castle.

Broadwoodside, an inspiring contemporary garden that is set around a restored farm with exquisite enclosed courtyards and garden rooms with quirky garden objects.

This afternoon we will explore Edinburgh on our city tour.

We are travelling north into Perthshire today, doing a circuit of the Firth of Forth, to Crieff visiting one of Scotland’s finest gardens, Drummond Castle. The gardens are breathtaking, and the best view of them is from the terrace; it’s worth the climb! There are fountains, terraces, urns, statues and far-reaching views of the Perthshire landscape.

Kilbryde Castle this afternoon which was originally built by the Earl of Menteith in 1460. The castle is situated on the side of a gorge which the river Ardoch flows through encircling the castle on three sides. The gardens are split into three parts: informal, woodland and wild. Azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias form the natural planting in the woodland garden.

A day around Edinburgh with our first stop in the historic village of Inveresk to visit a private garden with colourful borders and a fine collection of old garden roses selected by Graham Thomas.

Afternoon visit to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, one of the world’s finest. It is home to a collection of wild-origin Chinese plants, a garden of Scottish heathers, Alpine garden, herbaceous borders, a 100-year-old beech hedge, the Queen Mother Memorial Garden and the magnificent glasshouses.

Tour ends this morning after breakfast.