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Yorkshire Gardens
5 days from Manchester
The dramatic Northern landscapes of The Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors are home to some of the UK’s best gardens. There are sculpted formal stately home gardens, quaint cottage gardens, herberies and lavender farms. Our journey will take us through the scenic ‘literary landscapes’ that inspired James Herriot and the Bronte sisters. Along the way, we can explore charming market towns, great cathedrals, country parish churches, magnificent ruined abbeys and monasteries. This short tour is a sampling of the Best of the North!
Links with Heart of England Gardens and The Lake District
Tour Date: 25 - 29 June, 2012
Tour Rates: $1799 USD per person; $500 USD single rate
What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 4 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and dinners. Your price also includes entrance fees to listed attractions, transportation, services of driver/guide-companion and all taxes and tips other than those you may wish to give your guide.
This tour begins and ends in Manchester.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY
Day 1 Monday
We depart Manchester at approximately 10 am, making our way north. Our first day will be concentrated on “Bronte Country,” seeing homes and gardens with connections to the great literary family.
We will visit Red House, which remains much as it was in the 1830s when Charlotte Bronte frequently visited. Enjoy the elegant parlor, flag stoned kitchen full of period cookery and the dining room stained glass window, as described in the novel Shirley. The award winning re-created 19th Century gardens here are like stepping back in time, with their shaped beds, decorative ironwork and authentic varieties of plants and shrubs.
Nearby is Oakwell Hall, another property often visited by Charlotte Bronte and the inspiration for ‘Fieldhead’ in Shirley. An Elizabethan manor home decorated as it would have looked in the 1690s, the furnishings provide an insight into a post English Civil War house. The 17th Century walled gardens have been beautifully restored and include the kitchen herb garden with over 80 different varieties. The formal garden contains a parterre of compartments, with topiary and clipped box hedging.
We’ll next make our way to the lovely village Haworth. In our explorations, you'll be able to imagine the everyday lives of the Bronte sisters, walking around Haworth Church, their home now the Bronte Parsonage Museum and the village itself. The dramatic moorland surrounding Haworth inspired the sisters to pen their novels that are some of the classics of English literature. We will have the worlds of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights leaping from the page!
Our overnight location is the charming town of Ripon, a place worth some time during our stay over the next few days. You can see the captivating 7th Century cathedral and the town itself is a meandering of medieval streets dotted with tea rooms and arts & crafts shops.
NIGHT STOP: Ripon
Day 2 Tuesday
Today, skirting the edge of the heather-covered North Yorkshire Moors, we will travel the short distance to three premier gardens!
The Walled Garden of Scampston is one place of interest. This contemporary gem was created by Piet Oudolf in the setting of an 18th Century kitchen garden space. The traditional garden surrounds the family home at Scampston, the estate parklands originally designed by ‘Capability’ Brown.
There’s the most spectacular stately home in Yorkshire, Castle Howard. This beautiful palace, recently used in the Brideshead Revisited film, is still lived in by the Howard family who built it in the 18th Century. You'll have free time here to explore the house and grounds. The gardens feature temples, lakes, statuary, fountains and acres of parklands. In the Walled Garden, enjoy the 18th Century collection of roses and delphiniums and meander the pathways of seasonal displays of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Set in an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,’ we can see Yorkshire Lavender, an award winning garden and lavender farm. Walk amongst the lavender flowers, a stunning array of different colors including white, pinks, blues, and a rainbow of purples with a range of distinct and heady scents. There’s a unique Lavender Maze and a specialty shop bursting with high quality lavender products.
NIGHT STOP: Ripon, as above
Day 3 Wednesday
Today the charming landscapes around the Yorkshire Dales will be our focus. This is the area that inspired local vet Alf Wight, better known as ‘James Herriot,’ to pen the All Creatures Great and Small books. Certainly something to read prior to the tour!
Mount Grace Priory is an interesting stop, a monastery considered the best preserved Carthusian priory in Britain. The herb gardens here have been refurbished using species prevalent in the early 16th Century, creating a stimulating, heavily fragrant atmosphere. As the herbs are attractive to wildlife, the Priory is home to the most well known colony of stoats in the country.
Richmond is called one of the nicest towns in England, situated in the heart of the Dales at Swaledale. The castle dominates the town and the steep streets are around the central cobbled market square. Richmond Castle Gardens feature colorful modern borders, sculpted Yew hedges and the unique Cockpit Gardens, telling the poignant story of the WWI conscientious objectors in topiary. If we’ve time, there’s Scollards Hall nearby, built in 1080 and one of England's oldest domestic buildings.
We will call in for a visit to Newby Hall, used recently for a film version of Mansfield Park. This 25 acre Garden features a famous double herbaceous borders flanked by several focus compartments. We can enjoy the National Collection of cornus, a water garden, roses and a contemporary sculpture park.
NIGHT STOP: Ripon, as above
Day 4
Firstly, we’ll go to nearby Fountains Abbey. The Skell River valley has been transformed into a spectacular Georgian water garden featuring canals, elegant ponds and water cascades. In this expansive landscape, there are the medieval Abbey ruins, classical temples and statuary to meander.
York is a fabulous walled city that has much to offer its visitors! There’s the splendid Minster, the city centre castle, the medieval shopping 'Shambles' and the 10 acre listed Botanical gardens around the York Museum. If we manage to find additional time, just outside of town is another lovely garden, Breezy Knees, which boasts a 6000 flower summer garden. We will maximize our time by staying overnight in this wonderful historical place.
NIGHT STOP: York
Day 5
Our final day is yet another full of amazing blossoms and blooms! RHS Harlow Carr is undoubtedly one of the best gardens in the North. This expansive and tranquil space is dominated by water, stone and woodland blended into its Dales surroundings. Wander streamside, through the scented garden, the kitchen garden and admire the variety of planting styles. While we’re here, maybe try a famous Yorkshire Tea from the on-site Betty’s Tea Room?
The winner of the BBC Gardeners ‘World Best Garden of 2010’ award, Harewood House is also on our day’s agenda. Another massive extravaganza of beauty, the 100 acres boasts plants from around the globe set inside a landscape designed by ‘Capability’ Brown. Experience the Himalayan Garden with its winding gorge pathways bursting with primulas, orchids, cobra lilies and blue poppies. There is a formal garden, walled orchard garden and Red Kite viewing opportunities.
We will return to Manchester by early evening.
Please note: All attraction opening times are correct at time of printing this website. While we will do our utmost to include all of the properties mentioned as central visits, we reserve the right to change an attraction should it become impossible to deliver a planned visit due to changes in opening days or times that we could not have been aware of at the time of loading this tour to our website.
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